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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE PASSING LEGIONS 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK - BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 



THE PASSING LEGIONS 

HOW THE AMERICAN RED CROSS MET THE 

AMERICAN ARMY IN GREAT BRITAIN 

THE GATEWAY TO FRANCE 



BY 
GEORGE BUCHANAN FIFE 



H3eto gork 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1920 

All rights reserved 



^ 



Copyright, 1920, 
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 



Set up and electrotyped. Published, October, 1920 



NOV 1 1920 



©CU604030 



*v v 



' i 



PREFACE 

The exhilaration and incentive which came of service at 
the front, of contact with actual warfare and the sharing of 
adventures and dangers with fighting troops were denied to 
the American Bed Cross staff in Great Britain. But, for 
all that, its work never once lacked a superb inspiration nor 
was it devoid of moments of sheer drama. 

Its service lay back of the lines, among those either " on 
the way up " — for a million American soldiers passed 
through England on their long journey to the battle zones 
— or on leave or returning, wounded and worn, from the 
firing line. To these men it ministered in many ways 
which are past forgetfulness. 

In a war extending over so vast a theatre and for so long 
a time, the activities of the several American Bed Cross 
Commissions abroad must often have been identical in both 
intent and execution. The aim of the writer, therefore, 
has been rather to avoid such coincidental details of history 
and helpfulness and to narrate those achievements which 
distinguished the work in Great Britain, those which, in the 
swift emergency preceding them, in their setting and their 
drama are without counterpart in the chronicle of any other 
Bed Cross effort in Europe. 

It has not been possible, in recounting these narratives, 
to present the names of all those who had a part in the 
work, but this can take nothing from the heart and high 
pride with which their service was given nor from their 
share in a great achievement. 

The writer wishes to make grateful acknowledgment to 
many members of the staff for aid in the compilation of this 
volume, for access to archives and to other written records 
whose artistry inspired him not a little. 

G. B. F. 
40, Grosvenor Gardens, 
London, , June, 1919. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Preface v 

I A Call Through the Storm ........ 1 

II The Lesson of the Tuscania 25 

III When the Commission was Born 47 

IV The Word that Came in March 74 

V Along the L. O. C 90 

VI Where a Million Men Went By 113 

Til The Incoming Legions at Liverpool . . . .119 

VIII A Drama in Finance 139 

IX The " Shepherd " at Liverpool 167 

X Crowned Heads and Merry Men at Dartford . 179 

XI The Miracle of Eomsey and Sarisbury Court . 194 

XII The Water-Gate to France — Southampton . 219 

XIII "The Flying Squadron" and Some of Its 

Flights 230 

XIV A Royal "Berth-Deck" 249 

XV The Clubmen of Morn Hill 265 

XVI Here and There in Britain 280 

XVII The Bluejackets of Cardiff and Plymouth . . 294 

XVIII With the Army to Archangel 303 

XIX The Unbreakable Link with "Home" . . .322 

XX A Soldier's Joke — And What Came of It ! . . 338 

XXI The Picture's the Thing! 357 

XXII Valedictory 364 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



A Red Cross " Tank " on Canteen Service in Lon- 
don Frontispiece 

FACING 
PAGE 

Romsey, the Red Cross Hospital which was Entirely Built 

by Passing Detachments of American Soldiers ... 30 

"The Great Hall" of the Royal Law Courts of England 

turned into a Lodging House for American Sailors . 81 

The Red Cross " Bulletin " on the Wall of the Pilgrim Fa- 
thers' Church at Immingham Ill 

A New Use for a Building in Southampton Nine Hundred 

Years Old ... 161 

American Soldiers from German Prison Camps Received by 

President Wilson at Buckingham Palace 210 

Convalescent American Soldiers Attending a Red Cross 

Concert at Tottenham Palace 261 

The American Red Cross Bringing the News of the Armis- 
tice to Dartford Hospital 311 



THE PASSING LEGIONS 

CHAPTEK I 

A CALL THROUGH THE STORM 

A BRITISH destroyer raced into the Harbor of Belfast 
one Sunday night. There had been no word of her 
coming nor why she came. Save for a single flash of her 
code number when she raised the headlands of the guarded 
Lough, she showed no lights. She swept in toward the 
upper roadstead as if she wore her somberness for a token. 
The Coastwatcher on the headland, wondering why she 
had sent no wireless and what had brought her off patrol, 
conned her with his glass as she sped by. But with the dis- 
tance and the swirling mist it yielded him little. His brief 
report to the Naval Base told all he knew: 

" His Majesty's Torpedo-boat Destroyer Mounsey pass- 
ing in at full speed. No signals." 

The perplexed officers at Belfast headquarters read the 
message again and again. The Mounsey? Why was she 
running in, and without so much as a spark of warning? 
" No signals " meant, of course, that her wireless was dead. 
" At full speed " was reassuring, but — And there every- 
thing save conjecture stopped short. 

In those days — it was early in October, 1918 — they 
knew that any one of countless things could have happened. 
So the base emergency detail was hastily turned out to 
await the destroyer's coming. 

As the Mounsey swung slowly toward the guiding lan- 
terns on the dock-end, her searchlight suddenly flooded the 

1 



2 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

entrance way and a voice from her bridge hailed through a 
megaphone. The wind caught the words and flung them 
landward in ragged sentences: 

"Ashore there! This is the Mounsey — Lieutenant 
Craven — we've got a lot of American soldiers — off the 
Otranto — wrecked at the head of the North Channel this 
morning — Can we come in there % " 

In response to the answer that flew back to her, the Moun- 
sey thrust her high thin bows abreast of the dock and, as 
she glided into her berth, the voice called again, cutting 
sharply through the rising undertone of noise and mooring 
orders : 

" I'm sorry, but the men are in bad shape from exposure 
and some are injured. We'll need stretchers to take them 
overside. They can't walk." 

In the light of the flares, as the destroyer drew past them, 
those on the pier could see the huddle of men upon her 
narrow decks, and their drawn, blank faces. 

" How many have you aboard ? " the Medical Officer 
called up, his hands cupped about his mouth. 

" Between five and six hundred, I think, Sir," was the 
amazing reply. " About half of them are Americans. 
The rest are part of the crew of the Otranto and some 
French sailors. We'll need all the help you can give us." 

Before the first of the destroyer's mooring lines had been 
made fast, the senior officer in the little group upon the dock 
turned like a flash to one of his Lieutenants and gave swift, 
concise instructions: 

" Go to the telephone and call through to the American 
Consul and tell him about these soldiers. Then get the 
American Bed Cross. Say that we are sending the sick 
men to the hospitals in the city and the others to Victoria 
Barracks — all those who are able to go. Ask the Bed 
Cross to bring clothing and blankets to the barracks as soon 
as possible." 

The task of getting those six hundred half-frozen men 
ashore was a long and far from easy one. While a major- 



A CALL THROUGH THE STORM 3 

ity of them could hobble and stumble down, many had to 
be carried. There were broken legs and arms among them 
and more than two score were already ablaze with fever. 
Some, so benumbed they could not move, had to be cut 
away from the ropes with which they had lashed them- 
selves to the destroyer's deck-gear to prevent being washed 
overboard. Few of the men were more than half clad, 
others were even without shoes and all had been drenched 
to the skin for a dozen hours in an icy gale. 

Thus it was that the Mounsey brought in the first news 
of the disaster and its token in the wretched men crowded 
upon her decks. And only a few leagues away to the 
North, their own great ship, the troop-transport Otranto, 
with nearly five hundred of their comrades left helpless 
aboard her, had been beaten to pieces on a reef of the 
Scottish Coast. 

They had last seen her that morning with a great hole 
in her side, hopelessly unmanageable, lurching away in the 
roar and smother of a storm. They had seen, too, those 
hundreds, clinging along the rail, staring after them as 
the destroyer turned and made off through the welter. 
What, after that, had become of the ship and those upon 
her they knew nothing. They scarcely knew how they 
themselves had won through it all. There had been the 
collision of the transports in the storm, a flash of dismay 
throughout the ship and as swift a realization of what 
that death-blow meant. Then the instant of tense hope- 
fulness when the destroyer appeared through the mist and 
hailed them. After that had come their uncertain leap to 
her deck as she swung for a daring instant alongside — so 
many had leaped and failed to make it — the clutching 
scramble for whatever offered a hand-hold against the 
heave and fling of that desperately cluttered space, and 
last of all, the struggling away in the roaring gale with the 
seas breaking over, hour after hour, and almost wrenching 
them out of their lashings. 

It had been impossible for the Mounsey to send news 



4 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

either of her coming or of the collision which had wrecked 
the Otranto as her wireless had been carried away by some 
of the overhanging, swaying top-hamper of the troopship 
in a hazardous brush against her side. Yet the American 
Red Cross in Belfast, deprived as it was of all chance for 
immediate preparation to meet such an emergency and to 
care for those men in their peculiar distress, was not only 
ready but made a response as swift and efficient as if this 
disaster and its very hour had been foreseen. 

The hastily sent news of the Mounsey's arrival reached 
the Red Cross while the first of the shipwrecked men were 
limping down the gangplank, and within five minutes there- 
after three big motor cars, held in readiness night and day 
for any service, had been summoned and were speeding to 
its warehouse for supplies. It had asked only one ques- 
tion : " How many men are there to be cared for % " 

This much of its work afoot, the Red Cross at once 
turned its attention to the stricken Otranto in effort to 
learn what had happened to her. Naval headquarters 
knew only the fact that, with hundreds still aboard her, she 
had driven off into the storm, out of control and probably 
foundering. The Mounsey, courageous as she was, had 
accounted for only six hundred of her company; it had 
numbered more than a thousand when she left the States. 

One after another the Red Cross called its four emer- 
gency stations along the northern coast of Ireland, but there 
was no word of the Otranto. They had not even heard of 
the disaster. Not so much as a grating had come ashore. 
The storm was still raging from the west. Perhaps some- 
thing might be known on the Scottish shore. 

But this alike was a futile questing. Communication 
by wire was possible with only a few ports and these had 
no news. It seemed almost a certainty that the Otranto 
had gone down. 

Mr. Hunter Sharp, the American Consul in Belfast, im- 
mediately after the naval authorities had telephoned him 



A CALL THROUGH THE STORM 5 

of the disaster and the Mounsey's rescue, called the Red 
Cross, and, learning that the work of relief was already 
under way, hastened to the barracks. 

He found the American soldiers gathered in the large 
military gymnasium, a bedraggled, woe-begone lot. They 
were rigged out in whatever odds and ends of clothing the 
men of the destroyer and the barracks troops had been able 
to furnish them Some were half naked and wrapped in 
blankets while others were shivering in their still wet uni- 
forms. Miserable as they were, their faces brightened as 
they thronged up to shake hands with Mr. Sharp when he 
told them who he was. 

" And I've also come to tell you,'' he added, " that the 
American Red Cross is here in Belfast and will be at the 
barracks in a very few minutes to do everything for you 
and bring you whatever you need." 

The men who crowded about him were frankly incred- 
ulous. It wasn't so strange to find the American Consul, 
because there had to be one everywhere, but the American 
Red Cross in this out of the way place — ! " Sure it's the 
American Red Cross ? " Yes, Mr. Sharp was quite sure. 

" Wait and you'll see," he suggested to them. 

" Say, fellers, three cheers for the Consul and the Amer- 
ican Red Cross ! " 

It was a lanky soldier from Georgia, muffled to his chin 
in a brown blanket, who cried it and the earnest reply was 
such a hoarse, uncanny sound that it brought even some 
stolid British soldiers to the door in wonderment. 

That the summons to care for these men had come to the 
Red Cross after nine o'clock on a Sunday night, the time 
one associates with rest from activities of every kind, caused 
neither consternation nor delay. It had been forearmed, 
equipped against any day, any hour of service and, indeed, 
for service of this very kind. Its warehouse was already 
stocked with every necessity ; there remained only the de- 
tail of transportation and this, too, had been pre-arranged. 



6 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

As a matter of fact, it was while Mr. Sharp was assuring 
the amazed men that the Red Cross was on its way to them 
that the three cars, loaded with food, clothing and blankets, 
rolled into the cobbled driveway of the barracks. And this 
within an hour after the destroyer had set the first men on 
shore ! 

The incredulousness of the Americans grew rather than 
diminished as they watched the Red Cross men bring in 
the packages of emergency stores. It held them for just 
an instant and then they surged forward, tired as they were, 
to help with the bundles and boxes. A squad of Royal 
Army Medical Corps non-coms and orderlies who had been 
told off to attend to the survivors, aided in distributing 
the supplies, first passing out thick underwear, socks, 
shirts and soft slippers to every man. As the soldiers 
in their eagerness pressed about the orderlies there 
were smiles upon faces which had not known them for 
hours and, now and then, even the unbelievable sound of 
laughter. 

In a twinkling the shivering soldiers were stripping off 
their sodden things and hurrying into the dry and comfort- 
able clothing. Many of them did not even try to make 
their way out of the crowd. They undressed and dressed 
again just where they stood. Then came the biscuits, the 
chocolate, and the cigarettes. It was the cigarettes prob- 
ably more than anything else, than even the Red Cross 
emblems on the bales of supplies, which gave the finishing 
touch to conviction. 

" Well, I'm damned if these ain't American cigs ! " is a 
faithful composite of the welcome they received. 

One of the men, eating chocolate between puffs and 
taking obvious comfort in his warm greatcoat, said, as his 
eye ranged over the gymnasium, that " it looked to him as 
if the Red Cross had been sitting up just waiting for 'em.'* 
He made the comment to Mr. J. Fred Cleaver, the Ameri- 
can Red Cross representative in Belfast who was at the 



A CALL THROUGH THE STORM 7 

head of the emergency relief service and had brought the 
supplies to the barracks. 

" Did you know we were coming ? " the soldier added, 
with a twist of a smile. 

" No, we didn't, and we're sorry it was you," Mr. 
Cleaver replied, " but we felt that, perhaps, something of 
this kind might happen some day through storms or 
submarines, or mines, so we made ready for it, that's 
all." 

" It's mighty lucky then that we got into Belfast, isn't 
it ? " the soldier went on with another wry smile. 

" Yes, it is, but there are Red Cross emergency stations 
in every danger zone along the coast. They are just as 
well equipped, just as capable as this one. They've been 
ready to answer any call for the last six months. You'd 
have been cared for every bit as promptly if you'd come 
ashore at any one of them." 

" Gee, the little ol' Red Cross ! " 

This was all the soldier could say in answer, and it came 
after a long and thoughtful pause, but there was a whole 
heart in it. 

The equipment of the men with the many things they so 
much needed required more than two hours and several 
trips of the motors to the Red Cross storehouse for the 
additional supplies. While the distribution was going on, 
Mr. Cleaver and his aides, who were doing all they could to 
hearten up the men and to help the stiff and bruised ones 
into their clothing, discovered that a number of them, 
through exposure or injury in their crashing leap to the 
Mounsey's deck, were in need of medical care. These were 
quickly singled out and removed by the orderlies to the 
barracks infirmary. And before one o'clock came around 
the last weary man in the big gymnasium had rolled him- 
self in his warm blanket and was fast asleep. 

As for the other men, fifty-five of them in all, who had 
been taken to the city hospitals, a visit disclosed that they 



8 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

were in no immediate need of Red Cross supplies but that 
these might be provided later. 

Thus came to an end an eventful night in Belfast. 

From the fragmentary stories the soldiers had related 
and from information gained from the men of the de- 
stroyer, it was now possible to construct a clear narrative 
of what had befallen the troopship, at least up to the time 
the soldiers were taken off her. 

The Otmnto, a converted British auxiliary cruiser, doing 
duty as transport, was the flagship of a convoy bringing 
American troops to England. On this voyage she carried 
a detachment of 694 officers and men, most of them from 
the training camp at Fort Scriven, near Savannah, 
Georgia; a crew of approximately 400 and also thirty 
sailors picked up from the boats of a French bark she had 
cut down in mid-ocean. 

The destination of the convoy was Liverpool, and to 
reach it by what was considered the least dangerous path, 
once the vessels were in English waters, the course lay 
through the North Channel, a narrow, well patrolled pas- 
sage between Scotland and Ireland. 

But it was fated the Otranto should never make it. 
When at 9 o'clock on the morning of October 9, the squad- 
ron of troopships was almost at the Channel entrance and 
fairly in sight of the northern Irish Coast, a ninety-mile 
gale came racing out of the west and overwhelmed it. 
Under the terrific impact of the wind and the sea, the 
vessels staggered toward the opening, striving with every 
ounce of steam to gain it and the calmer waters which lay 
beyond. And all would have passed through in safety if 
a great wave had not disabled the steering gear of the 
Kashmir, one of the convov. 

In an instant she was out of control, and a little later 
the sea lifted her and flung her, bow on, into the Otranto' s 
side. 

The ponderous blow, delivered directly amidships, cut a 
wide gash in the cruiser from port rail to waterline, and 



A CALL THROUGH THE STORM 9 

drove her down, with the Kashmir grinding into the wound, 
until she was at the point of overturning. But the sea at 
last wrenched the Kashmir away and the Otranto slowly 
righted herself, only to lurch deeply into the turmoil as 
she filled. 

Although the firerooms of his ship were flooded, her 
engines useless and she now utterly unmanageable, Captain 
Ernest G. W. Davidson, the Otranto' s commander, at once 
ordered the Kashmir, which had suffered little injury, to 
make all speed to the nearest port. 

For nearly an hour the Otranto raced with the gale, her 
filling holds listing her until her port rail was almost awash. 
Every hope of rescue had long been given up by the stoutest 
heart when suddenly the Mounsey came rolling, plunging, 
driving toward them through the smother. She had caught 
a wireless call for help and sped to answer it. 

Unmindful of every risk, her commander, Lieutenant F. 
W. Craven, swung his little craft in a wide arc and ran 
down under the Otranto 's lee. Captain Davidson realized 
at once that he meant to come alongside and attempt a 
rescue so, with a first brave word of thanks, he signaled to 
him not to try it and endanger his own vessel but to stand 
clear as the transport was sinking. 

But Lieutenant Craven paid no heed to the message. 
Fighting a way through the hurricane and the towering 
seas he brought the Mounsey abeam of the Otranto and not 
more than fifty yards from her. 

" Lower away your port boats empty," the destroyer 
signaled. " Make fast so they float alongside. I'm com- 
ing in." 

With the first words of the message Captain Davidson 
understood. It meant a chance for some of the men — a 
few, perhaps — so a signal fluttered in answer, the orders 
were given and the boats, swaying, leaping, twisting like 
new-caught fish upon a line, came down the transport's 
side. 

Then the Mounsey crept in. Between her and the 



10 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

Otrwnto now lay a protective device, frail to be sure, but 
still a safe-guard — the boats wbicb made a string of 
fenders along the menacing steel sides of the lurching 
troopship. For, with all their wild plungings as the seas 
caught them, they would serve to lessen the blows when 
the two vessels should drive together, as they must, with 
terrific force, once the destroyer ventured alongside. 

To the men on the Otranto it seemed to take the Mounsey 
an age to cross that narrow span of water. But she made 
it at last and as she crashed into the line of lifeboats, Lieu- 
tenant Craven waved to the men along the troopship's rail 
to jump down. 

Now it was " every man for himself," and they began 
to leap the instant a wave lifted the destroyer toward them. 

There were those whom Fate permitted to time it aright, 
there were others who fell and were crushed with the 
splintering boats ; and still others, who, in their eagerness, 
sprang into a churning gap of water when the two vessels 
swung apart. But during those heroic moments that the 
Mounsey clung to her perilous task, demanding the utmost 
of skill and coolness to prevent her own destruction, more 
than six hundred leaped into safety to her decks. Others 
had climbed on the Otranto' s swaying rail and were ready 
to follow, but a wave caught the destroyer's bow and flung 
her out of all possible reach, so she had to sheer away to 
save herself. 

Although weighted to the danger point by the number of 
men he had already rescued, Lieutenant Craven swung his 
craft about and started once more to come up with the 
troopship. But the boats along her side had been crushed 
into uselessness or were gone entirely, and there was nothing 
left to fend the vessels apart. Another attempt would risk 
even those who had been taken off. So the Mounsey was 
reluctantly put about and headed away out of the tempest. 
And the last signal she caught from the Otranto' s tilted 
bridge was : " Thanks ; good luck ! " 



A CALL THROUGH THE STORM 11 

The men at the Belfast barracks were scarcely awake 
next morning when the Bed Cross people arrived, bringing 
additional woolen clothing, tunics and greatcoats, an abun- 
dant supply of " comfort bags " containing razors, soap, 
towels, toothbrushes and other toilet things, and a cheering 
quantity of American cigarettes and tobacco. As the sol- 
diers had left the Otranto with nothing save the clothing 
in which they stood — and little enough of that in so many 
cases — the " comfort bags " made almost as much of a 
sensation as the cigarettes of the night before. ~No amount 
of explanation could overcome the wonderment of the men 
at the readiness with which their wants had been antici- 
pated. They drew the things out of the bags and turned 
them over and over in their hands as if not quite certain of 
their reality. 

" It sure beats me how you did it all," said one of the 
men. " We knew the Bed Cross was over in Prance look- 
ing after the fellers, but " — he glanced up with a slow 
smile from the safety razor he was putting together — " I 
didn't think you could run across it in a place like this — 
any more than I expected to land here myself ! " 

After a generous breakfast with a limitless amount of 
hot coffee which the British military authorities served to 
them in the gymnasium, the Americans were " ready for 
another day " and by noon were sufficiently equipped and 
rested to go about outdoors. 

In the meantime, the women of the Bed Cross branch had 
set out at an early hour to visit again the sick and injured 
Americans who had been taken to the several city hospitals. 
A few of these had hurt themselves severely in leaping to 
the destroyer and all were suffering the effects of the chill- 
ing exposure they had undergone and to which, in spite of 
every care, twelve of them succumbed within the next few 
days, and were buried on October 11th with military 
honors. 

The women distributed " comfort bags," chocolate and 



12 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

fruit to those whose condition permitted it and afterward 
spent a busy forenoon writing letters for the ones who could 
not do it for themselves. These letters, for the censor's 
good reasons, had to be guarded in expression, but they 
sufficed to carry the word overseas that somebody's boy had 
" landed safely and was getting on fine, don't worry." 

With the coming of another day, the Red Cross renewed 
its search for tidings of the Otranto. Reports from the 
coast stations suggested that, with the set of the gale, what 
remained of the troopship and her men would be driven 
toward the rocky islands fringing the Scottish coast. But 
as the storm had destroyed many lines of telegraphic com- 
munication, nothing definite could be learned from Scot- 
land. 

News, however, came at last from a Red Cross outpost 
on the northern rim of Ireland. The Otranto had not gone 
down but had been driven upon a reef off the west coast of 
the Island of Islay and was, in all likelihood, a total wreck. 
Should there be any survivors, which was reported as 
scarcely probable in such a storm, they would be in need 
of immediate aid. 

This information, incomplete as it was, determined the 
Red Cross to dispatch at once a relief expedition to Islay, 
for there was a possibility, after all, that among those 
hundred some had gained the shore. 

The sole prompt means of reaching the island lay in a 
venturesome passage of the North Channel through the gale 
which was still sweeping it. By reason of the hazard this 
involved, Mr. Cleaver called for volunteers to go with him. 
When these had enthusiastically responded an appeal was 
made to the commander of the Belfast Naval Base for a 
destroyer to take the Red Cross party and its supplies to 
Scotland and for a detail of Medical Corps orderlies to 
assist in the work ashore. It was thought best by the 
naval men that Buncrana, a Red Cross post 120 miles north- 
west of Belfast, should be the point of debarkation as the 



A CALL THROUGH THE STORM 13 

run could be made with the gale instead of across it and 
give more hope for success. 

Efforts to telegraph to Buncrana proving fruitless, the 
storm having now thrown down almost all northern wires, it 
was arranged that the party, with its supplies, should never- 
theless set out by motor without delay. Assurances were 
given that a destroyer, fully instructed, would be in readi- 
ness to take the relief party aboard when it should reach the 
northern port. 

At half past seven o'clock that night the Red 'Cross expe- 
dition left Belfast, its six motor cars loaded with food, 
medical supplies and comfort necessities. 

After six hours of hard going over the stormy roads, 
a brief halt was made at the Red Cross emergency station 
in Londonderry where a motor lorry filled with warm 
clothing was added to the column. Buncrana was reached 
shortly after dawn. Here it was learned that the naval 
post commander had already dispatched two trawlers for 
Islay with American Red Cross stores so, in all haste, the 
expedition, its supplies and a detail of hospital orderlies 
were put aboard a British torpedo boat for that hopeful 
voyage. 

Wireless reports said that the weather had " somewhat 
moderated." The " somewhat " contributed a certain 
elasticity to the term. For when, at noon, the vessel 
reached Port Charlotte, eight miles across the island from 
the supposed location of the wreck, she found the two 
trawlers from Buncrana anchored well out and still unable 
to put ashore any of the Red Cross stores they had brought. 

However, at one o'clock, as the wind held up a bit, 
those on the torpedo boat decided to risk a landing. But 
when the pinnace, bearing five of the party and an emer- 
gency outfit, drew near the narrow beach, it was found 
impossible to take her in. The wind and sea were high 
and " blowing right on " and the approach to the beach, 
save in one place, perilous with rocks. Still determined, 



14 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

the party got aboard a fishing boat moored about a quar- 
ter of a mile off-shore in the hope that she could be used 
in landing, but this, too, was out of the question. 

By this time a number of the inhabitants, who had 
gathered to watch the fortunes of the party, began waving 
signals and soon a plucky small boat put off from the 
beach and by making several exciting trips succeeded 
eventually in landing every one wet and safe in Port 
Charlotte. 

The first inquiry there revealed the appalling tragedy 
of the Otranto. Of the hundreds she had carried away 
into the storm only twenty-one — seventeen of them 
American soldiers — had come ashore alive. The bodies 
of the others were still being flung into the deep, rocky 
gullies along the shore where the searchers were finding 
them under the wreckage. 

The Otranto had struck on a jagged ledge in Machrie 
Bay about a mile and a half off Kilchoman, at 10:45 
o'clock on Sunday morning — the captain's dented watch 
was found to have stopped at 11 :05. For a few hours 
she had withstood the tremendous battering of the sea and 
then, in the early afternoon, had broken in two and gone 
to pieces on the reef. 

The survivors, several of them badly injured, and one, 
a sailor of the Otranto, so hurt that he died a few minutes 
after rescue, had been dashed upon the rocks beneath 
Kilchoman, a tiny cliff hamlet on the wildest part of 
Islay's western coast. There the neighboring shepherds 
and the farmer-folk, clustered on the headland to watch 
the transport's slow destruction, had gone bravely into 
the crashing surf and dragged the men to safety. 

As it was necessary to seek out these castaways at once 
and provide whatever they might need, a motor car was 
readily borrowed and the medical staff of the Red Cross 
expedition sent to Kilchoman with medicines and emer- 
gency supplies. The remainder of the party and the 
stores were then landed from the torpedo boat, a tedious 



A CALL THROUGH THE STORM 15 

and difficult task in the gale, and a base of Ked Cross 
operations established at Port Charlotte. 

The physicians drove at top speed to Kilchoman and 
there found six American soldiers. They had come ashore 
more dead than alive. Only one of these, whose arm was 
broken, had been able, eventually, to walk; the men and 
women of the hamlet had carried the others on their backs 
up the long, steep paths from the water's edge. 

Although Kilchoman' s resources were few — the entire 
settlement consisted of a church, three 'dwellings and a 
school-house — everything possible in that remote and 
primitive region had been done for the survivors. They 
had been attended by the British medical officer of the 
island, two were in the manse of the Reverend Donald 
Grant, the Padre of Islay, and four in cottages close 
beside his weather-beaten church. Slender of means as 
they were, the people of this small community had made 
unhesitating sacrifice, not only in taking in and nursing 
the sick but providing as many of the survivors as they 
could with clothing which it demanded not a little unself- 
ishness to spare. 

Yet self-denial had gone even further than that. The 
members in one family in Kilchoman actually slept in a 
barn so that the comfortable quarters in their two-roomed 
house might be given to the Americans they were har- 
boring. 

It is quite impossible to say too much of the humanity 
of all these peasant people, of their readiness to accept 
any hardship in the* name of mercy, of the gentle, steadfast 
nursing they gave the soldiers, virtually bringing them 
back to life. 

The intention of the Red Cross was to embark for Ire- 
land all of the survivors who were able to make the journey, 
but it was found that those at Kilchoman were in no con- 
dition to be moved. So, after distributing clothing, 
medicaments and other immediately needed supplies, and 
having a cheering talk with each of the men, the two 



16 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

physicians hastened a few miles southward along the coast 
to another cliff village whither eight of the rescued, six 
Americans, a British naval lieutenant and one of the 
Otranto' s engineers had been taken for shelter. 

These men, although much knocked about, were in fairly 
good shape and the Red Cross conveyed them to Port 
Charlotte late that afternoon where they were fitted out 
with clothing from the newly established base. In the 
evening, accompanied by a Red Cross physician, they 
were put aboard the torpedo boat, which conveyed them 
to Ireland. 

So far, twelve of the Americans had been accounted for. 
The remaining five were reported to be at a village 
thirteen miles away over the worst roads in the United 
Kingdom. And there the Red Cross found them, with a 
lucky stoker of the troopship in the party and all meas- 
urably cheerful and uninjured.. Beyond providing them 
with suitable clothing and comforts and leaving a stock 
for future use, there was little for the Red Cross to do 
for these men as an American Army officer had arrived to 
take charge of them. 

In their talks with the Red Cross men the survivors on 
Islay were able to take up the drama of the Otranto where 
those who leaped in safety to the Mounsey's deck had left 
it. Few had clear recollection or understanding of how 
they got ashore, except that "they had paddled to keep 
their heads up" and had been buffeted in with the 
wreckage swirling about them. 

After the Mounsey, unable to take any more men aboard, 
had steamed away from the transport that Sunday morn- 
ing, those who watched her go resigned themselves to 
chance. It was all that was left for them. The remain- 
ing lifeboats could not be launched and the men preferred 
to stay by the ship rather than risk that chance and face 
almost certain death by going over her side. So the 
Otranto reeled ahead in the grasp of the hurricane. Land 
came in sight at last and as she neared it Captain David- 



A CALL THROUGH THE STORM IT 

son shouted from the bridge, " Boys, we've got to swim 
for it after all!" A moment afterward the troopship 
struck the reef. Had she drifted only a few hundred 
yards further to the north she would have passed the rocks 
and driven on a sandy beach and all hands might have 
been saved. But the reef caught and held her there and 
the sea broke her up. 

The men aboard could see the groups of islanders gath- 
ered on the headlands of Islay and for a time they hope- 
fully watched the efforts of the coastguard to get a rocket 
line to them. But after many trials this had to be aban- 
doned as the wind was too high and the distance seaward 
too great for the carry. Later, as the waves were furiously 
sweeping the decks, some of the men sprang over in their 
cork jackets, but most of them still clung to the ship. 
During the early afternoon she was torn in two, one part 
of the hull turning sidewise and emptying all hands into 
the sea. The other part was quickly beaten to pieces, and 
in this churn of wreckage the living and the dead were 
flung ashore together. 

The force of the sea which destroyed the Otranto was 
almost unbelievable. Although she struck more than a 
mile and a half from land, huge portions of her engines 
were wrenched out of her and driven across even that 
distance into the rocky gullies of Islay. It was little to 
be wondered at that far more men were killed by the 
wreckage than were drowned, as the examination of the 
Ked Cross surgeons disclosed. They had never had a 
ghost of a chance to swim for it through the driving masses 
of broken timber and cargo. 

Along the coast for nearly a mile the bodies were washed 
in. Owing to the way in which the storm had wedged 
the wreckage into the deep, narrow crevices, the recovery 
of the dead was most difficult, great piles of heavy timbers 
having to be taken apart to search for them. As few of 
the island men could be spared from harvest, the task was 
necessarily slow, but the bodies were gathered in twos and 



18 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

threes and borne on improvised stretchers and farm carts 
to Kilchoman. They were first laid in the churchyard 
and a careful record made of the identification discs which 
were found on most of the American soldiers. Note was 
also made of the contents of pockets and of clothing marks 
in the cases of those whose tags were missing. This work, 
as well as that of collecting the dead, was performed under 
the direction of Lieut. Col. C. Heaton-Ellis, the ranking 
British military officer on Islay, who spoke afterward 
in highest terms of the aid the Red Cross had been to 
him. 

At the end of the third day, having given the survivors 
all assistance in its power and provided for them a stock 
of supplies at two towns, the Red Cross party left for 
Ireland on a' British trawler. 

But this was not all that the Red Cross was to do for 
the Otranto's men. A second hurrying expedition had 
already been dispatched to distant Islay. 

Word of the disaster, brief and bare of detail at first 
but supplemented later by telegrams from Belfast, reached 
London headquarters the morning after the Otranto struck. 
A party headed by Lieutenant James JefTers, commander 
of the ever-ready " Flying Squadron " of the Emergency 
Relief Department, was immediately organized and started 
north with the American Army officers who had been or- 
dered to the scene of the wreck. 

When this party debarked at Dublin on Tuesday 
morning it encountered, by good fortune, the first band of 
American survivors, 202 men and four officers arriving 
from Belfast. As they went aboard the little steam packet 
which was to take them to England, the Red Cross men, 
one of whom had been with them all the way, distributed 
a plentiful supply of cigarettes and chocolates, enough to 
last them to their journey's end. 

The train bearing the second detachment, numbering 
forty-five men and two officers, bound southward by way 



A CALL THROUGH THE STORM 19 

of London, was not stopped at Dublin for some reason, 
but sent through to Kingstown. So the Ked Cross has- 
tened into action. The young women of the Dublin branch, 
who had been expecting the train and had prepared for it, 
were not to be denied. They bundled their sandwiches 
and cakes into a swift motor and ran down to Kingstown 
where they gave the men a surprise party by serving 
them in their coaches at the railway station. Chocolate 
and cigarettes were also given to them out of the Red 
Cross magician's bag. 

At no time, from the hour of their dramatic arrival in 
Belfast Harbor until they reached their destination in 
the south of England, were these officers and men out of 
Eed Cross hands. The first band, which went directly 
to a rest camp near Winchester, was met again by the Red 
Cross at the railway station and provided with whatever 
the men most needed. Additional clothing was given to 
them later at the camp and to several of the officers the 
Red Cross lent sufficient funds with which to replace their 
ruined uniforms. The second band was met in London 
at half past ^.ye o'clock in the morning by a Red Cross 
emergency detail which provided the men with supper 
and afterward took them in motor cars to comfortable 
sleeping quarters. In good and proper time the Red Cross 
entertained them at breakfast next day and, as a last 
service, motored them to the station whence they entrained 
for the south. 

So prompt and sincere was the appreciation of all these 
men that reference to it is irresistible. It is, perhaps, 
best summed up in what one of the officers said : 

" How the Red Cross did it I can only imagine, but this 
I know: many of the survivors of the Otrdnto owe their 
lives to the Red Cross. Its representatives were with us 
as soon as we landed from the British destroyer and con- 
tinued to serve us constantly until we reached our camp 
in southern England. 

" The preparations made by the Red Cross before the 



20 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

disaster were amazing in their foresight, because it had 
everything ready for us when we landed in Belfast. 
Many of our men, beyond any doubt, would have fallen 
victims to the effects of shock and exposure save for the 
warm clothing, the food and the medicaments which the 
Red Cross so promptly supplied. 

" There is not a man in my detachment who does not 
feel the keenest gratitude to the men and women of the 
Ked Cross who met us all along the way. What they did 
for us in Belfast, that is, for those of us who landed in 
fairly good shape, was only a small part of their work. 
It was, naturally, centered upon the fifty or more men 
who had to be taken to hospital immediately upon arrival 
and to whom so much kind care was given." 

There was much that the second Red Cross party found 
to do, once it reached Kilchomam The stock of provisions 
available in that bleak, remote region was all but ex- 
hausted. Following their hospitable " gillie " custom, the 
people of the hamlet had fed most of the scores of islanders 
who had come from even the remotest villages to help 
gather the Otromlos dead, until little remained for the 
half dozen injured survivors, or even for themselves. So 
the Red Cross sent a foraging squad into the farm lands 
of the back-country which returned in a borrowed motor 
car loaded with milk, eggs, butter, bread and meat to 
refill the empty larders. 

Five days having passed since the wreck of the troop- 
ship, it became necessary to bury the bodies which had 
been collected in Padre Grant's church. There were so 
many of them — they were coming in every day — that 
they not only filled the pews and most of the floor space, 
but were even laid upon the altar platform. Only three 
coffins were to be found upon the island and as the scarcity 
of wood prevented further manufacture, it was decided by 
the British authorities to place the dead in shallow trenches 



A CALL THROUGH THE STORM 21 

and cover them with green sod until they might be per- 
manently interred. So the first burial ceremony was set 
for Friday, October the eleventh. 

Early in the afternoon of that day, the funeral proces- 
sion formed in the rugged little churchyard of Kilchoman 
and went its slow way across the windy downs. It was led 
by the two pipers of the Laird of Islay, in kilt and bonnet, 
playing a Highland dirge. After them came a rough 
farm cart with the three coffins, bearing the bodies of the 
captain of the Otranto and two American officers who had 
perished with him, escorted by a guard of honor from the 
Home Defense Force and the constabulary, the clergy of 
Islay, representatives of the American Army, of the Brit- 
ish Army and Navy, the Eed Cross party, and last, a great 
crowd of the islanders, many of whom had, in like fashion, 
followed the Tuscania's dead only eight months before. 

The burial ground given by the Laird of Islay, Mr. 
Hugh Morrison, was on a plateau a few hundred yards 
from the church, sheltered beneath a high parapet of cliffs 
but overlooking the distant scene of the wreck. In the 
trenches there, the bodies of 186 of the victims — 120 of 
them American soldiers — had already been placed, with 
flowers about them, even in that bleak country; wreaths 
and clusters from His Majesty's Army and Navy, from the 
American Army and Navy, the County Constabulary, the 
Coastguard, and from many of the residents of the 
island. 

The ceremony over these men was impressive beyond 
forgetfulness. Padre Grant read the burial service and 
the other members of the clergy added their short prayers, 
after which, as the American flag and the Union Jack 
were dipped, the guard fired six volleys in reverberating 
salute. Then there was a pause, but before the echoes 
died the assemblage, with one voice, broke into " God 
Save the King ! " 

This, in accordance with every custom, would have closed 



22 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

the ritual, but no sooner was the anthem ended than the 
crowd, with the same ringing fervor, took up " The Star- 
Spangled Banner " and sent it, too, flying from rock to 
rock. It was a graceful, delicate courtesy which the 
officers of the American Army and the Red Cross were 
quick to appreciate. 

There were many other burials later in that same 
ground because, in time, the sea and the wreckage gave 
up the bodies of 315 American soldiers and at intervals 
they were laid in the trenches beside their fellows. It 
was possible to identify only 263 of these men, so fifty- 
two were buried nameless. But the resting place of each 
has been carefully marked with a cross and, in the ar- 
rangement of the graves, a place left for the emplacement 
of a monument which will further designate the spot and 
tell something of the tragic story of the men who lie 
beside it. For when the Otranto was wrecked, 365 
American soldiers perished with her. 

The day after the first burial ceremony, two military 
detachments arrived on Islay to complete the tasks at 
which the islanders had so tirelessly worked. One was 
composed of twenty-five American soldiers sent to make 
coffins and bringing a motor truck and a shipload of 
lumber with them from Liverpool. The other was a detail 
of thirty men of a British labor battalion from Scotland 
to relieve the exhausted volunteers who, day and night, 
were searching the shore for the dead. This work had 
become more and more difficult as the sodden cargo of the 
Otranto continued to pile up in the gullies and inlets of 
the coast. 

Quarters for the Americans were obtained in an old 
distillery -and two cabinet makers on the island employed 
to teach them the fashioning of the caskets. 

To each of these contingents the Red Cross rendered 
valuable aid, providing Englishmen and Americans alike 
with such necessities as bread, tea and tobacco, blankets, 
heavy underclothing and sweaters and such minor com- 



A CALL THROUGH THE STORM 23 

forts as razors and toilet accessories. Also it gave them 
an abundant supply of peat with which to heat their 
draughty billets. Fresh provisions were conveyed to them 
in a Red Cross motor which made four trips every day 
half way across the island to the nearest place at which 
stores could be purchased. 

For the injured soldiers at Kilchoman a daily supply of 
milk, butter and eggs was furnished by the Red Cross and 
everything possible done to lighten the humane labors that 
the people of the hamlet had so heroically assumed. It 
had been an almost superhuman undertaking to bring 
five of these men back to life after they were snatched out 
of the sea, but it never relinquished for an instant. How- 
ever, little by little, one of them failed, despite all the care 
that was given to him, and nine days later he died and was 
buried with his mates. He was a boy from Augusta, 
Georgia ; Mrs. Grant, the Padre's wife, who had so faith- 
fully nursed him, and one of the Red Cross officers were 
at his bedside when he went. 

This brings almost to a close the story of the Otranto 
and what the American Red Cross did for her survivors 
and her dead. Within a short time the remaining soldiers 
were able to leave Kilchoman and journey to Ireland and 
thence to their camp in southern England. And with 
their going the work of the Red Cross on Islay came to 
an end. 

In after years the ships that go buffeting through the 
windy gateway of the North Channel will pick up, high 
on a headland of Islay, a towering landmark, sharp against 
the northern sky. They will come to look for it and to 
know it as they know the beacons of that rugged coast. 

For, on the Mull of Oa, the island's south-most point, 
the American Red Cross is building a great stone tower 
in memory of those American soldiers who were lost when 
disaster overtook the troopships Tuscania and Otranto in 
the waters just beyond. 



26 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

Tuscania, which made such alert efficiency possible. The 
Tuscania served the Red Cross as a lesson, grim, but in- 
valuable, and set it to fortifying itself against whatever 
Fate, abroad in British waters, might later contrive with 
submarine or mine or storm along the Kingdom's rocky 
shores. 

This recital having already, and with intent, set chron- 
ology at naught, must venture to do so again in turning 
now to the Tuscania because, in Bed Cross annals, the 
Tuscania and the Otranto are inseparably linked through 
this very lesson and what came of it. 

The sinking of the Tuscania created a sensation in Eng- 
land as well as in the United States and the newspapers 
in both countries rang with it. This was the first time that 
a vessel filled with American troops on their way to the 
theater of war had gone to the bottom. Had it not been 
for the intrepidity of the convoying British destroyers 
and a measurable factor of pure Chance, most of the 2,500 
men aboard her must have perished. But, through these 
fortuitous things, all but 182 of her company were saved. 

With so many survivors stripped of practically every- 
thing, and flung upon its hands for aid in half a dozen 
distant places, there is little wonder that the Bed Cross 
learned a lesson from this unfortunate ship and was ready 
for the Otranto s fateful hour almost to the point of 
foresight. 

That one may more clearly understand the plight of 
those hundreds of rescued men and how much they stood 
in need of help the Red Cross brought to them, one must 
go, as it were, aboard the Tuscania on her last night, Tues- 
day, the 5th of February, 1918. 

The convoy of troopships, black shapes upon a black sea, 
had swung into the entrance of the North Channel and was 
turning southward. The morning would find them all 
safe at Liverpool. On the Tuscania fifteen lookouts were 
watching the waters about their ship for there was peril 
on every side of her; the Hun boats had been very busy 



THE LESSON OF THE TUSCANIA 27 

of late. But there were destroyers riding on the flanks 
of the convoy and no one gave serious thought of the pos- 
sibilities of danger. The voyage was almost at an end. 

Several hundred lumberjacks from the woods of Wis- 
consin and Michigan, forestry engineers, and aero-squadron 
men were at supper. Hundreds of others were impatiently 
awaiting their turn at mess. 

In the midst of it all, without even the warning of a 
foaming wake, came a shattering explosion on the Tus- 
canias starboard side. There was never one instant's 
doubt of what it meant and the call to quarters shrilled on 
every deck. 

Although the 2,500 men she was carrying had had the 
briefest of military training and discipline, they formed 
on deck and then went to their appointed stations with the 
utmost courage and coolness. Not a man hurried. 

As the torpedo had blown an enormous hole in the Tus- 
camia, she sank deeply and at once upon her injured side. 
While this made it comparatively easy to lower away her 
starboard lifeboats, those along her now high port rail 
were rendered practically useless. But so steadfastly did 
every man hold himself in hand that the ones who had been 
thus deprived of their allotted boats made no effort to seek 
place in others; they merely stood about, out of the way, 
and hopefully waited or else looked to the fastenings of 
their cork jackets and deliberately leaped overboard. The 
absence of even a suggestion of panic would have been 
remarkable enough at such a time and with so slightly 
trained troops, but it has been stated upon the word of a 
well-known American writer, who chanced to be a passenger 
on one of the vessels of the convoy, that when the heavily 
laden lifeboats pushed off from the Tuscanias side, some 
dauntless soul began singing the refrain of : " Where do 
we go from here, boys ; where do we go from here ? " In 
an instant the men in the other boats had caught it up 
and with this music-hall ballad ringing out in unanswer- 
able inquiry, they rowed away into the darkness. 



28 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

Rescue, however, reached the Tuscania far more quickly 
than it came to the wallowing Otranto, for, the instant 
she was struck, the Tuscania signaled and flashed on all 
her lights. The convoy knew at once what had happened 
to her and knew also that a German submarine had pierced 
the cordon of guard ships to deliver the blow. But, heed- 
less of danger, two British destroyers darted in to the 
Tuscania s aid, running alongside, so that her men could 
jump or slide down ropes to their decks. Favored by a 
comparatively smooth sea, the North Channel patrols and 
boats from the escorting ships also engaged in the task of 
picking up the many soldiers who were floating about or 
clinging to rafts in the freezing water. As it was in the 
dead of winter the condition of a number of these men 
was such that they died while the rescue boats were mak- 
ing for land. And many, too, were already lifeless when 
they were taken from the water. 

Although the Tuscania remained afloat for about two 
hours and every effort was made to pick up all the living 
and the dead, the darkness and the set of the tide and the 
wind made this impossible. However, of one unfortunate 
American soldier who drifted away that night there is a 
record in the files of the British Admiralty. It is penned 
in a deep-sea skipper's rough and unaccustomed hand, 
written in the cabin of a steam trawler and saving of 

words. It says: 

Bellona. 
When patrolling on Square 37 at 12 a.m. Monday, the 18th 
(of February, 1918), I observed the dead body of a man with a 
lifebelt on floating in the water. I stopped the ship at once 
and picked him up. I found him to be a man about 5 ft. 5 in. 
in height, of stout build with brown hair, clean shaven, dressed 
in the uniform of a marine with a pair of brown service boots. 
It was necessary to bury him at sea. After sewing the body up 
in canvas I read the funeral service and then quietly lowered 
him to his grave. 

John Mair, Skipper. 

The destroyers and patrol boats landed their rescued 



THE LESSON OF THE TUSCANIA 



29 



men at Londonderry, one of the naval bases, and at Lame 
and other lesser ports on the North Irish coast, the first 
of them reaching land shortly after 4 o'clock in the 

morning. 

At Londonderry, to which the destroyers brought 1,350 
men, eighty had to be sent to hospitals immediately. Many 
of these were soldiers, already ill, who had been brought 
on deck from the transport's sick-bay when it was known 
that she was sinking, and others were suffering from in- 
juries or exposure. 

News of the torpedoing having reached the mainland 
before the arrival of the castaways, some sort of prepara- 
tion was possible. As a matter of fact, the people of 
Larne sat up all night awaiting the boats. 

Every kindness and care were given to the wet and 
shivering survivors even at the resource-taxing hour at 
which they came ashore. They were provided with hot 
food and drink and from all available sources sufficient 
clothing was gathered to outfit temporarily a considerable 
number. The service of every physician in the Larne dis- 
trict was requisitioned and the women of the community 
largely volunteered for the nursing. Of the 550 landed at 
Larne, thirty were in need of prompt medical aid and these 
were taken to the city infirmary. The remainder were 
quartered wherever room could be found for them. The 
proprietor of one of the largest hotels gratuitously con- 
verted his dining room into a dormitory and provided 
mattresses and blankets more than a hundred. In order 
that discipline should be maintained in the community all 
the twenty-four public houses in the city closed their doors, 
not by order but by agreement, from the morning of the 
soldiers' arrival until they left three days later. 

The American Red Cross in London learned of the 
catastrophe at about the time the survivors were being 
brought into the northern Irish ports. Instantly the ma- 
chinery of relief was set in motion. The first impulse 
given to it was the dispatching of telegrams to the Ameri- 



30 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

can Consul at Belfast, placing funds and supplies in his 
hands for immediate use. Next, arrangements were made 
with the British Bed Cross in London whereby it put all 
its resources in Ireland at the disposal of the American or- 
ganization. And, lastly, two American Red Cross repre- 
sentatives, Captain B. Stuart Smith, afterwards Lieut. - 
Colonel and Commissioner for Great Britain, and Captain 
Edgar H. Wells, Deputy Commissioner and, at that time, 
assistant Military Attache of the American Embassy, took 
the night boat train for Larne, well supplied with money to 
meet whatever demands the extraordinary situation might 
make. 

When they arrived in Ireland early the following morn- 
ing they found that the officers and men of the Tuscania 
most in need of aid were quartered at Larne and in British 
military camps at Bandalstown and Carrickfergus. 

At these points a hasty but thorough inspection of the 
soldiers was made and Captain Smith and Captain Wells 
signed receipts for all the equipment of clothing and mess 
kits the men required, these being provided from the stores 
of the British Army. Also large quantities of comfort 
supplies and tobacco were purchased in Belfast and dis- 
tributed wherever survivors could be found. Arrange- 
ments were made with the railway transportation officers 
of the British Army for the feeding of the men on their 
journey from the several camps across Ireland and Eng- 
land to their ultimate destination at Winchester. 

Every camp was visited by the Bed Cross officers, the 
needs of the Americans ascertained and these at once 
supplied. Sums of money were lent to many of the offi- 
cers, both for their own needs and those of their men and 
they were informed that the Bed Cross would take steps 
to assist in completely re-equipping them as soon as they 
should reach England. Money was not given to the en- 
listed men as they had practically no use for it, the gener- 
ous townspeople everywhere refusing to accept payment 
for purchases. 



THE LESSON OF THE TUSCANIA 31 

The men in the hospitals were also visited and every- 
thing done to insure their comfort. And at the several 
British camps, the Eed Cross representatives made cash 
contributions to the regimental funds to replenish the stores 
which had been so largely drawn upon for the Tuscaniafs 
men. 

By reason of the great amount of work to be accom- 
plished the Bed Cross party of two had to work about 
twenty hours a day to make sure that no man and no need 
should be overlooked. Captain Smith and Captain Wells 
organized a very efficient assistance in Belfast where there 
were a number of resident Americans already interested 
in the work of the American Eed Cross. They gladly 
volunteered their services for any work that was to be done, 
for it was known that a considerable time must elapse 
before many of the sick men would be in condition to 
resume the journey to England. As speedily as possible 
these were concentrated in the vicinity of Belfast where 
they could be attended most conveniently and efficiently 
by the Bed Cross. It was not until nearly two weeks 
after the disaster that the last of the soldier patients was 
able to leave for southern England. But during all that 
time, with the cooperation and assistance of the Consul, 
the Belfast Americans, mostly women, were constant in 
their attention to the sick men, providing them with what- 
ever they were allowed to receive and cheering them not 
a little by their very presence. 

The soldier survivors in Ireland, aside from the hospital 
cases, were moved to England in five detachments, a Bed 
Cross representative accompanying each party to its port 
of embarkation and supplying tobacco and other comforts 
to outlast the journey. 

Of all the business days in the week, the most incon- 
venient, by common consent, is Saturday. At best it is 
only half a day, for after the noon hour has struck it 
might as well be Sunday so far as things commercial are 
concerned. However, perversity decreed that news of 



32 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

the decision to take the Tuscania survivors from Ireland 
to Winchester reached Red Cross headquarters in London 
on Saturday morning. Furthermore, it was learned that 
approximately nineteen hundred of these men would reach 
the big rest camp on Sunday night or early Monday 
morning. 

As none of the men had yet been completely re-outfitted, 
it was the desire of the Red Cross Commission to have 
everything needful at Winchester Rest Camp and avail- 
able for distribution the moment they should arrive in 
their new quarters. Aside from the fact that the Com- 
mission for Great Britain was still in its early days and 
without sufficient supplies to provide for so great a num- 
ber of men, Saturday presented its problem. All business 
in London commercial houses, where any purchases to 
meet such a demand would have to be made, ceases 
promptly at noon on that day, But the British Red 
Cross came at once to the rescue. It threw wide the doors 
of its London warehouses and offered to supply the Ameri- 
can organization with whatever was needed. This left 
to the American Red Cross the simple task of providing 
transportation. So, during the afternoon of Saturday, 
nineteen hundred packets were made up, each containing 
towels, soap, razors, cigarettes, stationery, handkerchiefs, 
gloves, combs and other comforts and, before evening, the 
whole lot had been loaded into a fleet of American Red 
Cross lorries and had started on their four-hour run to 
Winchester. 

The soldiers arrived at the rest camp on Monday morn- 
ing and immediately afterward the Red Cross parcels were 
distributed to them. Later in the morning they were 
drawn up for inspection in their nondescript clothing and 
complete new issues of the necessary uniforms were made. 
At the same time, the officers, 110 in number, were assem- 
bled and the Red Cross representative offered to provide 
them with whatever funds should be necessary to purchase 
uniforms and equipment to replace the gear they had 



THE LESSON OF THE TUSCANIA 33 

lost at sea. About 75 of the officers availed themselves of 
this offer and to them the Red Cross advanced amounts 
ranging from $50 to $210, the total sum reaching more 
than $16,000. In some cases, the Red Cross cashed for 
them drafts on their banks at home, but in nearly all 
instances the officers expressed their desire to make reim- 
bursement for the advances from their monthly pay. 
The Red Cross arranged to have first class army outfitters 
go to Winchester, take measurements, and receive orders. 
Forty of the officers, however, desired to come to London 
to make their selections and purchases and during their 
visit the Red Cross acted as guide and host, placing its 
headquarters building at their disposal and inviting them 
to select such articles as sweaters, blankets, underclothing, 
sleeping bags and other things, without charge, from its 
warehouse supply. During their stay in London they were 
the guests at the American Officers* Inn in Cavendish 
Square. 

Only one large party of the Tuscania survivors passed 
through London on the way to Winchester. This was 
composed of fifteen officers and 115 men. News of their 
coming was telegraphed to Red Cross headquarters in 
London and instead of providing for them the usual sta- 
tion canteen service, these men were entertained by the 
Red Cross at a dinner in the Euston Station Hotel, where 
the entire dining room was reserved for them. 

As time went on and the men in the hospitals in Ireland 
recovered, news of their departure for Winchester was 
telegraphed to London headquarters and arrangements 
were made to meet them on the way and give them what- 
ever care they needed. 

But all of the Tuscania s company were not so fortunate 
as to land in Ireland. There were hundreds of her men 
in the ship's boats which rowed away as she sank. These 
had the wind and the swift set of the North Channel 
current to contend with and these drove them eastward 



34 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

upon the jagged shores of Islay. And it was here that 
so many were killed or drowned when their boats crashed 
upon the rocks. The people of the island did all that 
was humanly possible to rescue them when the lifeboats 
and rafts came plunging in during the early morning at 
several points along the rough coast. While they did 
save hundreds who might otherwise have been lost, 182 of 
the Tuscania soldiers were flung ashore lifeless. Of these 
only 170 could be identified. As the victims had come in 
at rather widely separated places, they were buried as 
near as possible to these places in four cemeteries over- 
looking the sea. 

Many of the survivors on the island were in serious 
condition owing to exposure. To their aid the Red Cross 
sent a detachment of American nurses from the Red Cross 
Hospital at Mossley Hill, Liverpool. They made almost 
a record run to Islay and were soon in charge of the sick 
men whom they attended until all were able to travel 
and eventually they accompanied the squads of men as 
they left for their station in southern England. 

The British Government was prompt to reward two of 
the men of Islay for what they did in heroic aid of the 
Tuscania' s company. They were Robert Morrison, of 
Upper Killeyan, and Duncan Campbell, of Stremnish, both 
coastwatchers. 

Morrison saved the lives of three American soldiers. 
First he waded into the surf up to his neck and threw a 
rope to two exhausted men clinging to a rock, being able 
thus to haul them ashore. Then he scaled a cliff 250 feet 
high and rescued another American soldier who had 
climbed part way up the cliff and was in a perilous posi- 
tion, being too weak to hang there much longer. Morrison 
carried this man to safety on his back. Also he pro- 
vided accommodations for ninety men in his small house 
of three rooms. One man died there from exhaustion 
while another, ill with pneumonia, was cared for by Mor- 
rison's mother and sister until he, too, died. Morrison not 



THE LESSON OF THE TUSCANIA 35 

only used his entire supply of food in taking care of his 
unexpected guests, but gave away all of his extra clothing. 
He stoutly refused to accept any payment for his services. 
The American Ked Cross officer in charge of the work on 
this occasion reported : " In my opinion he is one of the 
greatest heroes I have ever heard of." 

Campbell saved the life of a soldier who had been thrown 
up on the side of an almost inaccessible cliff, and was 
lying there helpless and worn out. Campbell climbed to 
him with the greatest difficulty and carried him down. He 
accommodated fourteen survivors in his small farm house, 
providing them with clothing as well as food. And he too 
declined to consider acceptance of payment for what he 
had done. 

Now we come to the lesson which the Tuscania disaster 
taught the Eed Cross. That there was a lesson in it be- 
came apparent to the Ked Cross representatives as soon as 
they were confronted by the survivors at Larne. And at 
once the plans for the future were laid, even while the 
wants of those shipwrecked men were being attended. 

The first resolution taken by the Ked Cross men was that 
the organization should be immediately and adequately pre- 
pared to deal with tragic events of this kind and not be de- 
pendent upon either the British Ked Cross or the hospi- 
tality of British camps or of the people of the towns in 
which shipwrecked men might chance to land. This was 
at a time in which the submarine menace off the north 
coast of Ireland was very grave and American troopships 
were in constant passage along it. Any day news might 
come that another had been sent to the bottom. 

It was resolved, therefore, to establish five emergency 
stations along the northern coast of Ireland with a well 
stocked warehouse in each and to arrange for motor trans- 
port, for the billeting of men in outlying points at which 
there were no British camps, and for a hospital visiting 
service. The plight of the Tuscania s men made clear the 



36 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

various kinds of supplies required not only at the moment 
that survivors should land but subsequently, as the distribu- 
tion of equipment at Winchester had demonstrated. 

The result of this was that within two weeks after the 
sinking of the Tuscania the American Red Cross had estab- 
lished a central warehouse for an emergency station at 
Belfast, with similar stations and warehouses at Larne, 
Ballycastle, Londonderry, and Buncrana, five points spread 
fan-wise along the northeastern coast of Ireland from 
the lower part of the North Channel to a point which was 
far oceanward. It was at these points on the mainland to 
which the men of torpedoed vessels would be most likely 
to come. 

As an equipment of these warehouses the Red Cross pur- 
chased sufficient supplies of woolen underclothing, toilet 
articles, overcoats, tunics and caps, blankets, light canvas 
shoes, etc., to outfit completely six thousand men. Re- 
membering the Island of Islay, this remote place, but one 
which might again figure in the hazard of adjacent waters, 
the Red Cross covered it in two ways, by a reserve stock of 
supplies sent to Liverpool and by getting assurances from 
the British Admiralty that in case any ships or survivors 
should go ashore there it would furnish a destroyer or 
trawlers to take Red Cross representatives and supplies 
thither immediately. 

Motor transport was organized in Belfast by obtaining 
the use of a dozen private cars which had hitherto been out 
of service by reason of the impossibility of obtaining gaso- 
line during the war. These were held in reserve under 
telephone call in readiness to respond at a moment's notice 
for the conveyance of supplies and personnel to any des- 
ignated point. The owners of the cars themselves volun- 
teered as drivers. As Belfast was the base of operations 
a branch of the London Chapter of the American Red Cross 
was founded there similar to the ones previously established 
at Liverpool and Southampton. Billeting arrangements 
were completed at Larne and Ballycastle, hotels and pub- 



THE LESSON OF THE TUSCANIA 37 

lie halls in these places being placed at the service of the 
Red Cross whenever an emergency should require their 
use. 

As it was considered that there was danger of ships be- 
ing torpedoed off the southwestern coast of Ireland and at 
the entrance of the waterway between it and England, the 
Red Cross arranged with the United States Navy for the 
establishment of equipment warehouses at Queenstown and 
at Berehaven, in Bantry Bay. A large quantity of sup- 
plies was sent to each of these points in charge of navy 
paymasters. 

As the location and equipment of these several stations 
fortified the Red Cross against being dismayed or taken un- 
aware by sudden off-coa.st disaster, the Commission im- 
mediately undertook a thoroughly comprehensive extension 
of this plan of preparedness. It created the Bureau of 
Emergency Service and relegated to it the problem of 
coordinating the work of the relief and supply departments 
and of making all necessary arrangements in advance for 
anything which might happen. It was the function of the 
Bureau to f orsee every possible contingency and provide the 
working arrangements to meet it. 

This required a very careful study of the transport map 
of Great Britain and the establishment of central depots at 
numerous points around the coasts of the British Isles, 
these locations being so selected that any point on the coasts 
might be reached with the least possible delay. More than 
thirty of these emergency stations were established. The 
plan adopted had as its base the three central warehouses 
of the Red Cross, located in London, Liverpool and Win- 
chester. Then there were five sub-central warehouse sta- 
tions : Southampton, Plymouth, Cardiff, Belfast and Glas- 
gow. Southampton covered the south of England and the 
Channel ports; Plymouth covered the southwestern coast 
of England and the Bristol Channel ; Cardiff covered the 
Welsh coast; Belfast that of Ireland, and Glasgow the 
Scottish coast. 



38 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

Beyond the sub-central warehouses were the smaller 
emergency supply depots. Two of these were in the South- 
ampton district, four in that of Plymouth, four in the 
Cardiff territory, six in Ireland and five in Scotland. 
Under the direct supervision of London Headquarters were 
two supply depots covering the Thames estuary and the 
southeastern coast, one at Brighton and the other at Dover. 

From these thirty-odd well chosen points it was possible 
to reach any place on the coast within three or hour hours 
either by train or motor transport. In the matter of sup- 
plies, each of the small emergency supply stations was 
equipped to take care of from 100 to 500 men. If a dis- 
aster proved too great for such a station, additional ma- 
terial to any amount could be transported thither in a few 
hours from the nearest central warehouse. At each depot 
arrangements were made for motor transports to serve in 
such a contingency as well as for the delivery of supplies 
at the actual scene of disaster. Distances by road and 
train were carefully worked out in advance, not only in 
mileage but in the number of hours by both routes between 
points. Whenever the emergency call should come, the 
Red Cross man, map and distance table in hand, could 
bring the well-adjusted machinery into instant action. 

As Tate decreed it, a call did come only a few months 
later which tested to the utmost the capabilities of the 
American Red Cross. The task of answering it fell, not 
to the stations created in the elaborated plan of relief, but 
to the first to be established after the sinking of the troop- 
ship Tuscania, those along the rough northern rim of the 
coast of Ireland. The call came from the wrecked 
Otranto, and it found the Red Cross prepared almost to the 
point of foresight of that very catastrophe. 

There was no doubt of the value of the lesson of the 
Tuscania. 

Unfortunately, there was a third American troopship 
disaster in 1918, which resulted in the loss of fifty-five 



THE LESSON OF THE TUSCANIA 39 

American soldiers. The Moldavia, sl British auxiliary 
cruiser, was sunk in the English Channel by torpedo fire at 
2 :30 o'clock on the morning of May 23rd. The ship was 
strongly convoyed and the German submarine had to pen- 
etrate the cordon of destroyers, as in the case of the Tus- 
cania, to hurl her torpedo. But almost immediately after- 
ward the destroyers closed in and blew up the submarine 
with depth bombs. 

Aboard the Moldavia were two companies of American 
soldiers, A and B of the 58th Infantry. One man 
of A Company and fifty-three of B Company were lost on 
the ship and one man of the latter company died of his in- 
juries before reaching land. Most of the men lost were 
in the fore part of the vessel and were either killed by the 
explosion of the torpedo or cut off from all chance of escape 
by the blocking of the gangways. 

The American Red Cross received notice of the torpedo- 
ing from American Army Headquarters within a few hours 
after its occurrence and instantly two Red Cross repre- 
sentatives hastened to Dover with army officers detailed 
from the London base. The survivors had already been 
landed and conveyed to a British Rest Camp at Dover. 
Thither the Red Cross representatives carried a large sum 
of money and considerable quantities of supplies. An 
officer of the Home Communication Service was present 
and took charge of much of the relief work, in addition to 
the exacting tasks of his own particular department. 

Inspection of the survivors disclosed their immediate 
needs and the supplies, including sixty complete kit bags, 
were soon distributed. The army paymaster had ar- 
ranged to give to all the survivors, both officers and men, 
a certain advance on their pay and where this was found to 
be insufficient for pressing needs, the Red Cross was pre- 
pared to supplement it upon the recommendation of the 
military officials in charge. Each officer of the two detach- 
ments was informed that the Red Cross would be glad to 
assist in the replacement of his lost outfit, and this offer 



40 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

was at once accepted. When these officers had made state- 
ments of their losses and the amounts required to refurnish 
them with kits, the Red Cross lent them the necessary 
money and arranged to have them sent to London to pur- 
chase their new equipment there. 

Medical supplies for the survivors were placed at the 
disposal of the army hospital authorities and the repre- 
sentative of the Home Communication Service visited the 
hospital in which three injured men were being cared for 
and made arrangements to supply them with everything 
needful which was not obtainable from the hospital store- 
room. He also visited the hospital ship Liberty, on board 
which one of the American soldiers had died. 

The Home Communication Service succeeded in compil- 
ing a complete list of the victims and the names and ad- 
dresses of their next of kin in America, and this list, 
authenticated and official, reached Washington Headquar- 
ters by cable in less than five days after the date of the disr 
aster, which is probably a record for an official list on an 
occasion of that kind. The rapid work of the Home Com- 
munication Service in this instance was largely due to the 
efficient cooperation of the non-commissioned officers in 
charge of the company records. At great risk to their lives, 
these officers had succeeded in saving the rosters and other 
papers of their detachments while the Moldavia was 
literally sinking under them. 

The survivors of the Moldavia remained in Dover for 
about a week and were then transferred to the American 
Army Rest Camp at Winchester, whence they were sent 
on to France. 

In the official announcement of the sinking issued a few 
days afterward by the British Admiralty it was stated that : 

"His Majesty's armed mercantile cruiser Moldavia, Captain 
A. H. Smyth, was torpedoed and sunk on the morning of the 
23rd. There were no casualties among the crew, but of the 
American troops on board 56 are up to the present unaccounted 
for and it is feared that they were killed in one compartment 
by the explosion." 



THE LESSON OF THE TUSCANIA 41 

The establishment of the four cemeteries for the lost men 
of the Tuscania made the bleak and remote Island of Islay 
a very important point on the American Red Cross map of 
the British Isles. The creation, later in the year, of the 
cemetery at Kilchoman for the victims of the Otranto re- 
grettably emphasized the importance of this little-known 
region in the rocky western part of Scotland. 

Soon after the sinking of the Tuscania the suggestion 
was made at Red Cross Headquarters in London that the 
installation of a suitable monument on Islay should be con- 
sidered as a means of paying tribute to the memory of the 
American soldiers who had lost their lives there. 

The matter of designating thus only one particular group 
of Americans and erecting a monument to them and not to 
others was, of course, duly considered, but it was decided 
that such a question did not fairly arise. The reasons 
were : first, that the Tuscania 's dead represented, in a way, 
the first American casualties in the war ; second, that their 
graves were remote from the general theater of war and 
were likely to be neglected unless some especial action of 
this sort were taken, and third, that the sinking of the 
Tuscania was, as one might say, a special occasion, like a 
particular battle. 

Therefore it was decided that such a monument should 
be erected. Several designs were prepared and tentative 
approval was given to one specifying the erection of a 
simple obelisk or shaft of granite on the Mull of Oa, the 
high-flung promontory on the southernmost tip of the 
Island of Islay, close beside two of the Tuscania ceme- 
teries and overlooking the channel in which she was 
torpedoed. 

With the occurrence of the Otranto disaster, the plans 
for the monument were so modified that it should serve as 
a memorial to the dead of both troopships and a new de- 
sign for it was adopted. A plain granite shaft was held 
to be unsuited to the rough, rocky surroundings and not 
in keeping with the usual type of monument set up in this 



42 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

part of Scotland. Islay folks were accustomed to mark 
their important graves or sites with cairns, or towers, built 
of rough-hewn native stone. In view of this, the American 
Red Cross adopted the design of a watch-tower sixty feet 
in height and twenty feet in diameter at the base, to be 
constructed of stone gathered in the neighboring fields or 
from the cliffs. After this plan had been approved, Presi- 
dent Wilson volunteered to give a bronze wreath to be 
placed upon the monument which, from its rocky head- 
land five hundred feet above the sea, also overlooks the spot 
at which the Otranto was struck by the Kashmir. 

On one face of this monument will appear the following 
inscription : 

Sacred 

to the 

Immortal Memory 

of those 

American Soldiers and Sailors 

Who gave their lives 

for 

Their Country 

in the 

Wrecks of the Transports 

TtJSCANIA AND OtRANTO 

February 5th 1918 October 6th 1918 

This Monument was Erected by 

The American National Eed Cross 

Near the Spot where so many of the 

Victims of the Disasters 

Sleep 

in 

Everlasting Peace 

" On Fame's eternal camping ground 

Their silent tents are spread 
While Glory keeps, with solemn round, 

The bivouac of the Dead." 

In addition to this inscription, the Islay monument will 
bear on its sides large bronze tablets setting forth the 
names of all the victims of the two transport disasters, with 
their rank and regimental distinctions. 



THE LESSON OF THE TUSCANIA 43 

The ground about the monument, four acres in extent, 
looking out straight across the blue Atlantic, was given to 
the American Ked Cross by the owner, Captain Ian 
Ramsay, who donated also the land for three of the Tus- 
cania cemeteries, those at Killeyan, Kinibus, and Kil- 
naughton. The title to these four pieces of property was 
taken over by the American National Ked Cross in ac- 
cordance with the wish of Captain Kamsay. Title has 
similarly been taken from Mr. Hugh Morrison, the Laird 
of Islay, for the Otranto cemetery at Kilchoman and for 
the fourth Tuscania cemetery at Port Charlotte. Thus, 
all five of the Islay cemeteries in which American soldiers 
are buried, as well as the site of the monument, are now 
the property of the American Ked Cross. 

The American burial places on Islay and the number of 
graves in each are as follows : 

Killeyan, Mull of Oa 10 Tuscania graves 

Kinibus, Mull of Oa 36 Tuscania graves 

Kilnaughton, Port Ellen 87 Tuscania graves 

Port Charlotte 50 Tuscania graves 

Kilchoman 315 Otranto graves 

The Killeyan and Kinibus cemeteries lie along the cliffs, 
just below the Islay monument, and Kilnaughton cemetery 
is about four miles to the northeast. Port Charlotte and 
Kilchoman are to the northwest and, approximately, nine 
and twelve miles respectively from the headland of the 
Mull of Oa. 

During the year, Red Cross officers paid several visits 
to these cemeteries which have been carefully fenced in and 
are being well cared for in every way. Provision for their 
permanent maintenance was made through the gift of a 
fund of five hundred pounds sterling in perpetual trust 
to the Glasgow Islay Association, which has taken a keen 
interest in the preservation and up-keep of these reserva- 
tions. Local agencies on the island have given the ceme- 
teries a great deal of attention and never, from the very 



44 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

first, have the graves been bare of flowers or evergreens and 
American flags. 

With the coming of Memorial Day, 1919, the Ked Cross 
made services in the Islay Cemeteries an especial feature 
of a day which was celebrated in every corner of Europe 
in which Americans were gathered. For the bodies of 
many American soldiers lie in France ; there are graves in 
the United Kingdom; and many others scattered through- 
out Europe. Wide indeed has become the significance of 
Memorial Day. 

The opening ceremony of that day in behalf of those who 
had lost their lives on sinking vessels was the scattering of 
flowers on the water at Liverpool and Kingstown and also 
off the western shores of Islay so that the tide might sweep 
the blossoms out to the scenes of destruction and tragedy. 

On distant Islay, the shepherds and fisherfolk gathered 
with the same reverential enthusiasm for the memorial 
services that they had shown when the dead of the troop- 
ships were buried on their island. At Kilchoman, where 
three hundred and fifteen American soldiers and seventy- 
two British sailors of the Otranto lie side by side, the is- 
landers met in a body at 11 o'clock on the morning of May 
30th a short distance from the cemetery. They had come 
even from comparatively remote parts of their rugged re- 
gion, two young girls in the party having walked eleven 
rough miles in order to be present. Led by two pipers play- 
ing " The Scottish Lament," the procession marched slowly 
to the graves, bearing the flags of the United States, Great 
Britain and the Bed Cross close behind the pipers. The 
service was conducted by Padre Grant, who had read the 
burial ritual there only seven months before. All the graves 
were decorated with American flags and in addition to the 
prayer, the singing of psalms and an address by Mr. Grant, 
a chorus of children's voices sang " The Star-Spangled 
Banner " and " God Save the King." After this the clus- 
ters of hardy flowers, which the good folk had gathered in 
their dooryards, were placed upon the graves and the little 
party went its slow way back across the downs. 



THE LESSOK OF THE TUSCANIA 45 

More than five hundred persons attended the services 
which were conducted in Kilnaughton Cemetery, by the 
Rev. James Mackinnon, rector of Kilnaughton Parish 
Church, assisted by three other ministers, A small organ, 
which had been borne many miles, was set up in the center 
of the cemetery and a body of 150 school children led the 
singing of hymns and the two national anthems. Each of 
these children carried a small bouquet of flowers and at 
the close of the service they marched in single file to the 
large American flag which flew in one corner of the ceme- 
tery, opposite an equally large British " Union Jack," and 
there placed their blossoms which, later, were laid upon the 
graves. 

It was not possible to hold services at the three ceme- 
teries of Port Charlotte, Killeyan and Kinibus, but repre- 
sentatives of the Eed Cross and a committee of women of 
Islay visited each and decorated the graves of the Ameri- 
cans with flags and flowers. 

In paying this tribute to the men buried on Islay the Red 
Cross did not overlook the solitary grave of an American 
soldier, on the neighboring Island of Muck. This is an al- 
most out-of-the-world place, but it holds the grave of Tom 
Davis, who was on the Otranto. A long time after the 
disaster his body was washed up on the island and its five 
inhabitants made a coffin for it from the bits of wreckage 
which came ashore. It was the only material they could 
obtain for the purpose, and when they had buried Tom 
Davis in a silence which they meant to serve as a ritual, 
word of him and his resting place was sent to the Red Cross 
in England. 

That this lonely grave might be reached in time to dec- 
orate it with the others, a Red Cross party set out from 
London more than a week before May 30th, and got to their 
remote destination by hiring a fishing smack in Argyle- 
shire. So Tom Davis, although he was all alone, was re- 
membered with all the others and a flag and a wreath were 
laid upon his grave. 



46 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

The American Eed Cross took part in services at fifty 
different places in the British Isles on Memorial Day, 1919. 
The more extended services were held at Brookwood, near 
London, where there are 129 American graves, and at Win- 
chester, with its 553 graves; at Liverpool, 702 graves, and 
at Glasgow where 113 Americans are buried. And in 
tribute to one whose name is known to the armies of the 
world, a deputation of American Ked Cross nurses placed 
wreaths and flowers on the grave of Florence Nightingale 
at South Wellow, near Komsey. 

In Brookwood Cemetery a great concourse of people 
gathered for the memorial service. The Prince of Wales, 
who sent a wreath of laurels, orchids and gardenias, was 
represented by Captain the Hon. Piers Legh, and the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London by their 
chaplains. As Mr. Davis, the American Ambassador, had 
been called to Prance his place was taken by Consul Gen- 
eral Skinner. General Biddle, commanding the Ameri- 
can forces in Great Britain, was present as were Admiral 
Knapp, the successor of Admiral Sims ; Brigadier General 
Kenyon, late of the American War Mission; Lieutenant 
Colonel Bullock, of the Canadian Expeditionary Force; 
Viscountess Harcourt, clad in the uniform of a Lady of St. 
John; and the Earl of Meath. The band of the 1st Bat- 
talion of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry provided 
the music incidental to the service. After the prayers, 
Chaplain Roger B. Anderson delivered an eloquent ad- 
dress. In closing he said : " Who would have dreamed 
five years ago that a crowd of Americans would be stand- 
ing here in England today at the graves of American 
dead?" 



CHAPTEB III 

WHEN THE COMMISSION WAS BOKN 

THE invaluable and far-reaching work which the Amer- 
ican Ked Cross was to perform in the British Isles 
was foreshadowed by so slight a thing as the chance remark 
of an American Army officer. Specifically, this chance re- 
mark was the preface to the establishment of the first hospi- 
tal to be constructed in England for American troops. 

One day in London, in the latter part of October, 1917, 
Colonel William Lassiter, Military Attache of the Ameri- 
can Embassy, said to Major William Endicott, then rep- 
resentative in England of the Ked Cross Paris staff : 

" I have an inkling that American troops will very soon 
begin to trickle through Great Britain on their way to 
Erance. This, mind you, is only gossip that I have heard, 
but it may prove to be true. In that case Liverpool is the 
most probable port of debarkation and I think that the 
American Bed Cross should do something there." 

At that time there were no American soldiers in England 
save one or two small detachments of air-service mechanics, 
" ground men " sent across for finishing instruction and to 
release much-needed British mechanics to duty with their 
own flying corps. Major Endicott's work, as he himself 
characterized it, was mainly that of " purchasing agent " 
for the Commission in Erance. Experience had shown 
that many supplies urgently required for the use of the Bed 
Cross in Continental Europe could be bought in England 
when they could not be obtained for love or money in either 
Erance or Switzerland. So, to Major Endicott was en- 
trusted the diplomatic task of making these purchases when 
emergency rendered it out of the question to await ship- 
ments from the United States. Incidentally, no one save a 

47 



48 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

diplomat could ever have negotiated these purchases, so 
many were the difficulties surrounding the acquisition of 
commodities employed in war. 

A London Chapter of the American Red Cross was in 
existence at this time, with headquarters at No. 40 
Grosvenor Gardens, and there Major Endicott established 
his office on September 10, 1917, in a room the Chapter lent 
him. 

~No sooner had he hung up his cap than the orders from 
the Commission in France began pouring in upon him. 
Sometimes as many as fifty came in a single day. The 
goods they specified ranged from medicines to stoves, from 
tents to motor cars, calling upon the resources of practically 
every industry engaged in war production. It was never 
an easy thing to make these purchases. Permits were in- 
variably necessary to obtain products involving the use of 
metal or of wood as these two staples were under control 
of the British authorities, whose demands, naturally 
enough, were constant and almost exhaustive. But, 
through happy negotiations with the War Office and the 
British Red Cross, which was unfailing in its kind aid, 
Major Endicott succeeded in maintaining an uninterrupted 
flow of supplies across the channel. As he said afterward, 
" I am sure that I bought a whole department store in 
England and shipped it over to France ! " 

Thus, for a period of several weeks, Major Endicott was 
engaged in a service which, although fundamentally im- 
portant to the success of the Red Cross in Continental 
Europe, gave no promise whatever of a broader activity in 
England. Practically every Red Cross thought was cen- 
tered upon the sore needs of France, Belgium and Italy 
and of the other countries in which actual warfare was 
raging. England offered no problems save those incidental 
to the purchase of goods in a difficult market. It had 
been announced that the coming American troops, as an 
army, were to be convoyed directly to France, that they 
were to occupy the sectors on the right flank of the battle 



WHEN THE COMMISSION WAS BORN 49 

line — in the neighborhood of Toul — and that extensive 
hospital accommodations for all the wounded would be pro- 
vided in the south of France. In fine, England was quite 
out of it all — on the side lines, as it were. 

But, with Colonel Lassiter's chance remark, the situa- 
tion, the outlook, everything was changed in an instant. 
And a few days later, when he informed Major Endicott of 
his receipt of an official cablegram announcing definitely 
that American troops were to come to England on their way 
to France and the front, the vital role which the American 
Red Cross was destined ultimately to play in Great Britain 
became a definite thing. 

" The men are coming to Liverpool," Colonel Lassiter 
added, " but in small units only and not on army trans- 
ports, but in the available passenger space on commercial 
steamships. Will not the Red Cross establish a small hos- 
pital at Liverpool for those who arrive sick? I have no 
force with which to do this sort of thing and all of the 
hospitals there, both military and civilian, are already 
overcrowded with the British." 

" How large a hospital do you want? " Major Endicott 
asked, by way of affirmative. 

" Just a small one," was the reply. " About one hun- 
dred beds, I should say. That will give us ample accom- 
modation for our men who may be in bad shape when they 
land." 

The Major's reply was immediate. 

" You shall have that hospital just as soon as human 
hands can provide it," he said. 

In this way came to Major Endicott the first indication 
that his task in England was to be something more than 
that of purchasing goods for the Commission in France, of 
which, by the way, he was still a member. Now, although 
only " small units " of men were on the horizon, a hospital 
was also there and this meant but one thing, an expansion 
of the work until it should come into actual contact with 
the Army. 



50 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

As if Colonel Lassiter's news had been a trumpet call 
there was a sudden and hitherto unexpected American ac- 
tivity in London. The War Department at Washington 
established an Army Base in England, officially designated 
as Base Section 3, with headquarters in London and Major 
General George T. Bartlett in command, and the Ameri- 
can Red Cross created a Commission for Great Britain 
with Major Endicott, promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, at its 
head. The Deputy Commissioner was Captain Edgar H. 
Wells, who had been sent from America the week before 
Colonel Endicott's arrival to aid the London Chapter in 
the conduct of its growing affairs. 

Almost over night these important events occurred and 
while they set many heads to wondering they threw a light 
far into the future. 

Although by this time Colonel Endicott' s staff had been 
augmented, through the arrival of clerks and accountants 
from Paris, until its personnel numbered five, it included 
nothing which even remotely resembled a construction 
bureau, and this was the one thing now imperatively im- 
portant. So, in order that there should be no delay in pro- 
viding the promised hospital at Liverpool, Colonel Endi- 
cott asked the British War Office for the services of an en- 
gineer for aid in an undertaking which, as he explained, 
would relieve English hospitals of the task of caring for 
arriving American soldiers. 

In response to this request the War Office assigned a 
captain of the Royal Engineers, an officer of long experi- 
ence in the conversion of buildings for British hospital 
needs, to assist the Red Cross in every way. 

Colonel Endicott went at once to Liverpool, where that 
officer was stationed, and with him made an inspection, last- 
ing many days, of all the buildings in and about the port 
which could be rearranged expeditiously and adequately 
for the purposes of a hospital. 

The result of this search was the selection of an estate 
known as Mossley Hill, which possessed many natural ad- 



WHEN THE COMMISSION WAS BORN 51 

vantages and was within fifteen minutes by motor run from 
the Liverpool docks. Its extensive park included a manor 
house of many rooms, a stable and garage, greenhouses, a 
gardener's cottage and the usual appurtenances of an Eng- 
lish country estate. It was the property of Mr. Edmund 
K. Muspratt, a former Lord Mayor of Liverpool. 

Upon the advice of the British engineer, negotiations for 
its rental were at once undertaken, but, at the outset, 
Colonel Endicott and Mr. Muspratt could reach no agree- 
ment as to terms. In the end, however, Mr. Muspratt's 
son, who was -then Lord Mayor of Liverpool, effected a 
lease of the entire property to the Ked Cross for the 
nominal sum of twenty pounds, about one hundred dollars, 
a year, and on November 19, 1917, the lease was signed 
— laying the " corner stone " of the first hospital to be 
opened for American troops in England. 

The work of converting the manor house of Mossley Hill 
was characterized by a celerity quite in keeping with that 
which had marked its acquisition. Although British labor 
was practically at a premium and building materials ob- 
tainable only by the most diligent search, the efforts of the 
Eed Cross and Major U. J. Wile, of the American Army, 
detailed as medical inspector, resulted in the opening of the 
hospital for its first patients on January 8, 1918 — within 
six weeks after work was begun ! 

In that incredibly short time the house had been 
equipped with a new system of plumbing, several of the 
twenty-eight rooms enlarged or subdivided and accommo- 
dations provided for forty patients. This much ac- 
complished to meet emergencies, the Red Cross at once be- 
gan the construction of two sixty-bed isolation wards for 
contagious cases. And both of these wards were completed 
and occupied early in the spring of 1918. 

As the number of American officers and men arriving at 
Liverpool and other northern British ports was constantly 
increasing, Brigadier General A. E. Bradley, Chief Sur- 
geon at the Headquarters of the American Expeditionary 



52 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

Forces in France, recommended at the beginning of Febru- 
ary, 1918, that Mossley Hill Hospital be enlarged to a 
capacity of 500 beds, with snch auxiliary buildings as a 
laboratory and a steam disinfecting plant and quarters for 
a medical staff and a detail of enlisted men. 

Undeterred by any obstacles which might arise in an 
already stony path, the Red Cross instantly agreed to under- 
take the work and requested the engineer officer to draw up 
the necessary plans. The result of this was noteworthy. 
In the construction which followed, the American Red 
Cross laid down the pattern afterward adopted for all hos- 
pitals for the American Army in Great Britain. The de- 
sign, in brief, was for wards of forty-foot width, permitting 
four rows of cots instead of two, as heretofore, and two 
main walls instead of four and all under one pitch of roof. 

The new plans provided for the erection of six one-story 
ward buildings, each approximately 100 by 40 feet, in a 
large paddock belonging to the estate. And building opera- 
tions were begun upon a large scale, the very month that 
the recommendations came from Army Headquarters. 
Delays in construction were inevitable, but the buildings 
rose one by one and as rapidly as each was completed and 
equipped k was delivered to the Army Medical Corps for 
the reception of patients. 

When the Germans, in their drive for Paris in June, 
1918, penetrated to Chateau-Thierry and the American 
troops were flung against them, notably in Belleau Wood, 
the army dispatched a hurried request to the Red Cross 
that it set up at once a tent hospital for 500 patients in a 
field adjoining the Mossley Hill reservation. 

The response to this was the immediate shipment of a 
sufficient number of tents and paraphernalia to shelter 300, 
while the market was being ransacked for the remaining 
two hundred. But, fortunately, these tents never had to 
be used for wounded men. They did serve, however, for 
storage and similar purposes until October, 1918, when 
they were brought into requisition in the " flu " epidemic, 



WHEN THE COMMISSION WAS BORN 53 

which taxed every resource of both the army and the Red 
Cross. 

So, from the very beginning, Mossley Hill was a Red 
Cross enterprise, the entire expense of its construction and 
equipment and operation being borne by the Red Cross up 
to the time when, as a 500-bed institution, it was taken 
over by the Medical Corps of the American Army. 

With the arrival of American troops in England, in num- 
bers far in excess of all earlier expectations, a rapid in- 
crease of Red Cross activities was now assured. But for a 
clear knowledge of the foundations upon which they were to 
be erected, it is necessary to go back, even beyond the Lon- 
don Chapter ; in fact, to the days which antedated the entry 
of America in the Great War. 

In September, 1914, which was only a few weeks after 
the beginning of hostilities in Europe, a number of Ameri- 
can women living in England, a majority of whom had 
married British subjects, organized the American Women's 
War Relief Fund. Its object was the care of wounded 
officers and men of the British Army, and its maintenance 
was derived from voluntary contributions of money and 
supplies from England and the United StaUes. Among 
the American women associated in this undertaking were 
Lady Paget, Viscountess Harcourt, the Duchess of Marl- 
borough, Lady Randolph Churchill, Mrs. Walter H. Page, 
wife of the then American Ambassador; Mrs. Whitelaw 
Reid, Lady Lowther, Mrs. John Astor, Lady Henry, Mrs. 
Walter S. M. Burns, Mrs. Michael Foster, Mrs. Irwin 
Laughlin, wife of the Counselor of the American Embassy, 
and Mrs. H. B. Chapin. The treasurer of the organiza- 
tion was Mr. Walter S. M. Burns. 

In wholehearted aid of this undertaking, Mr. Paris 
Singer, of New York, placed at the disposal of the Fund 
his thirty-acre estate " Oldway," at Paignton, three miles 
from Torquay, in South Devonshire. This estate, in the 
most beautiful part of the " English Riviera," had been 
selected fifty years before by Isaac M. Singer, the inventor 



54 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

of the sewing-machine shuttle, as the site for his English 
home. Upon it had been built a great residence, " Oldway 
House," designed by French architects in the style of the 
Louis periods, which was a shining landmark on the coast. 

The place was in every way advantageous for a hospital, 
especially for convalescents, not only by reason of the com- 
fortable and commodious mansion, which contained, ap- 
proximately, sixty rooms, but because extremes of heat or 
cold or excessive rainfall are unknown at Paignton. 

With such an estate at its disposal, the Fund at once be- 
gan the conversion of the great house to its new uses. It 
established two hundred and fifty beds, converting an im- 
mense Louis XVI gilded ballroom into a ward, and pro- 
vided a distinguished staff of American physicians and 
surgeons to care for the British non-commissioned officers 
and privates, in whose behalf the institution had been 
founded. 

" Oldway House " is one of the most sumptuous private 
residences in England, with a grand stairway modeled 
after that of the Palace of Versailles, and dominated, in a 
panel over the wide landing, by David's historic painting, 
" The Coronation of the Empress Josephine," which the 
artist was fourteen years in completing. This prized 
canvas was hung on steel cables by which it could be 
lowered into a protecting tank in the cellar in case of fire. 
At the outbreak of the war Mr. Singer had it removed for 
safety to his New York residence. 

Surrounded by the regal elaborateness and the comforts 
which " Oldway House " and its vast park afforded, it is 
little to be wondered at that one of the American soldiers 
who was later under treatment there should have said to a 
fellow patient: 

" I've just written the folks at home that I'm living in a 
place that would make Kiverside Drive look like a row of 
sheds along a railroad track." 

And, by way of adding still another distinction to it, the 
soldier was told by a nurse to inform his people in the next 



WHEN THE COMMISSION WAS BORN 55 

letter home that " Oldway House " was the first American 
hospital in England to receive a visit from the Queen. 

The success which marked the administration of " Old- 
way House/ 7 where hundreds of the British soldiery were 
brought hack to health and helpfulness, led the Fund to 
open in March, 1917, a forty-eight-bed hospital for British 
officers at Nos. 98 and 99 Lancaster Gate, Hyde Park, 
London. This, in turn, was an eminently successful 
undertaking, due, in the main, to the tireless zeal of Vis- 
countess Harcourt, who devoted herself not only to the gen- 
eral conduct of the hospital, but gave daily personal super- 
vision of the work. 

About a month after Lancaster Gate Hospital was in- 
augurated, the United States entered the Great War and, 
close upon the heels of this, came the founding of the Lon- 
don Chapter of the American Bed Cross on May 24, 1917, 
with a distinguished directorate. Its Honorary President 
vvjas Mr. Walter H. Page, at that time American Am- 
bassador, with Mrs. Page and Mrs. Bobert P. Skinner, wife 
of the American Consul General, as Honorary Vice-Presi- 
dents ; Mrs. Whitelaw Beid, as Chairman ; Mrs. Irwin 
Laughlin, Vice-Chairman ; Boylston A. Beal, Honorary 
Secretary; Bobert Grant, Jr., Honorary Treasurer, and W. 
H. Buckler, Administrative Director. 

Early in the summer of 1917, several detachments of 
surgeons, nurses and orderlies — about 2,000 in all and 
forming six hospital units — arrived in England from 
America on their way to Erance, to care for the British 
wounded. These units, with a seventh from Harvard, 
which had preceded them, had been organized by the Ameri- 
can National Bed Cross and turned over to the Surgeon 
General's office of the United States Army. They were 
sent in response to the request made by the Balfour Mission 
when it visited the United States in May, 1917, that imme- 
diate medical aid be furnished to the British Army, as it 
was then losing several thousand doctors, nurses and allied 
personnel every month. 



56 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

So enthusiastically prompt were the American units in 
answering this call that the one from Cleveland — the 
Lakeside Unit of Dr. George W. Crile, and the first to fol- 
low the Harvard organization — sailed from New York 
three days after receiving its first notice to start for the 
front. The next unit was that of the Peter Bent Brigham 
Hospital, of Boston, headed by Dr. Cushing, and swiftly 
thereafter came the Pennsylvania Hospital Unit, of Phila- 
delphia, and the others from Chicago, St. Louis and New 
York. 

Owing to the extreme haste in which these pioneer con- 
tingents were dispatched, many of the nurses arrived in 
England without adequate equipment against the rigors of 
winter back of the lines. So the London Chapter of the 
Red Cross undertook, as its first work of magnitude, the 
provision of warm outer and underclothing, sleeping bags, 
rubber coats, oil stoves, gloves, etc., for those who stood in 
need of such things. Mrs. Whitelaw Reid, much inter- 
ested in this work, contributed heavily to the purchase of 
these outfits, making her donations, however, entirely 
through the Red Cross. 

Two results, quite aside from the important one of pre- 
serving the health of the workers, came of this initial enter- 
prise. One was the receipt of authorization from Red 
Cross Headquarters at Washington for the purchase of 
whatever supplies were required for the American nurses 
already in service in France. The other was the proper 
equipment, subsequently, of all the nurse units before their 
departure from the States for the big hospitals in Europe. 

In direct relation to this activity was the establishment 
in June, 1917, of the American Nurses' Club (London is 
emphatically a city of clubs) at No. 42 Grosvenor Place, in 
the very heart of the metropolis, under the chairmanship of 
Viscountess Harcourt, to provide accommodation and 
diversion for nurses on leave from, or on their way to, duty 
in Erench and British hospitals. 

Such was its deserved popularity that before very long 



WHEN THE COMMISSION WAS BORN 57 

the Chapter had to furnish an annex to it. This was made 
possible through the generosity of the Countess of Granard, 
who gave an entire floor of her home, Forbes House in 
Halkin Street, for the purpose. And when, in time, even 
these two places afforded insufficient quarters in which to 
house the visitors, Mrs. Cavendish Bentinck contributed 
an extensive suite of rooms in her home, 'No. 4 Richmond 
Terrace. Nor, indeed, was this the end of it. Later still, 
it became necessary to lease another building, No. 45 
Grosvenor Place, to provide shelter for the nurses during 
their short but well-earned holidays in London. 

The club was patronized by hundreds during its long and 
growing existence and many of the nurses were frank in 
avowing that " they didn't know what they'd have done had 
it not been for the club and the chance for real rest that it 
gave them." When the superintendent was asked what the 
nurses most appreciated in the club, her answer came with- 
out an instant's hesitation : 

" Hot baths and breakfast in bed ! " 

From this time onward the work of the London Chapter 
grew apace. One valuable activity came ready-made, as it 
were, into its hands. This was the American Receiving 
and Distributing Service. Begun as a branch of the Bel- 
gravia Workrooms, a British organization supplying surgi- 
cal dressings and appliances, bandages and clothing to 
British hospitals in France and England, it had grown, 
through the interest it aroused in America and among 
Americans in Great Britain, into a quite individual enter- 
prise. Upon America's declaration of war it established 
itself as a separate undertaking in behalf of the American 
forces, with headquarters at No. 16 Grosvenor Crescent, a 
house lent for the purpose. At this time the energies of 
the Service were mainly directed toward distributing equip- 
ment and supplies to the hospitals at Paignton and Lan- 
caster Gate, to the seven base hospital units which the 
American Government had sent to France, and among cer- 



58 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

tain British hospitals in accordance with such requests as 
were periodically received from the British Director-Gen- 
eral of Voluntary Organizations — known as " the 
D.G.V.O.," since almost everything connected with this 
war was, in conversation, however polite, reduced to its 
initials for either brevity or euphony. 

In June, 1917, the Service, under the able direction of 
Mrs. Henry B. Chapin, was taken over by the London 
Chapter of the Red Cross and, shortly afterward, removed 
to permanent quarters in a spacious building at No. 15 
George Street, the use of which had been gratuitously 
proffered by Sir Charles Allom. 

The big house, overlooking famous Hanover Square, was 
one of those dignified, early Victorian residences of which 
London possesses countless rows. It had, for neighbor over 
the way, the historic church of St. George's, where Theodore 
Roosevelt was married. 

When the Service occupied the building it had just 
ceased to be the principal show place of a great firm of 
London decorators and much of its furnishings was stock- 
in-trade. The chairman's office, with its walls of faded 
crimson brocatelle, its florid gilt mirrors, its marble con- 
soles and elaborately carved furniture, might have found 
its replica in the Quirinal. It was a charming setting for 
the women of the Service and yet, no sooner had they be- 
come attached to their surroundings than these began to 
disappear before their very eyes. The decorators were 
selling and removing their cherished wares. The wide, 
comfortable chairs, the couches and the inlaid tables were 
spirited away one by one. Other pieces of furniture had to 
be sought in adjoining apartments until the rooms became, 
first, a hodge-podge of periods and then mere offices, with 
angular roll-top desks and hard, four-square chairs. 

There was one room in the house which permitted the 
visitor to visualize in a limited space the widespread work 
of the Service. It was a large square room, its walls lined 



WHEN THE COMMISSION WAS BORN 59 

to the high ceiling with shelves filled with surgical requi- 
sites and, around its four sides, deep bins which were 
being constantly emptied and replenished with supplies 
coming from America for distribution in England and 
France. Great cases of these came sliding down a steep 
chute from the street level, while, from the floor above, 
smaller packages and bundles came down a smaller chute. 
In the room was a silent, busy corps of workers clad in 
clean, rustling blue and white uniforms, their heads bound 
with the becoming white wimple with the Ked Cross on 
the front fold. 

They bent over their tables, unpacking, sorting, repack- 
ing the things they were handling, the bandages, gauze, op- 
erating jackets, hospital garments, surgical appliances and 
supplies of all kinds, seeming to bring the battle front and 
this room in London very close together. The visitor could 
sense the urgent need for these things in the field stations 
and hospitals in distant France, as well as in close-at-hand 
England. 

Work was so systematized in the George Street establish- 
ment that an order for a given article in any amount could 
be, in most instances, filled immediately without necessitat- 
ing the task of unpacking the original bales or packages. 
The contents of cases and bales were always indicated there- 
on so that one of the chief details of filling an order was the 
employment of a van to take the goods to a railway freight 
station. 

Material for the Service came from a very large number 
of organizations and private benefactors. However, a 
majority of the consignments from America were sent 
through such institutions as the National Surgical Dress- 
ings Committee in New York, the New England Surgical 
Dressings Committee, the Philadelphia Emergency Aid 
Committee, the Red Cross Supply Service of Boston, the 
War Relief Association of Virginia and other enterprises 
included in the British-American War Relief group. 



60 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

Many organizations in Allied countries also contributed, for 
nowhere was the Entente more closely related than in the 
Red Cross, Queen Mary's Needlework having furnished 
3,600 packets of bandages as one offering. 

Only one day before the Tuscania disaster, a donation of 
700 wool jerseys was received at George Street. At the 
call for relief for the survivors of the troopship, the jerseys 
were dispatched to them immediately, the packages not even 
having been opened. Mention of the Tuscania recalls the 
receipt one day by the Service of a case of black Llama wool 
socks. A note accompanying the shipment explained that 
the case had been washed ashore from the Tuscania and 
picked up by a fisherman on Islay, who forwarded the socks 
with his respects and good wishes. Among a long list of 
interesting donations to the Service was a consignment of 
350 cases of groceries sent by " The English Servants of 
Philadelphia " and purchased with the proceeds of a ball. 
An anonymous individual in the Middle West sent the 
Service 100 cases of chewing gum. 

The patriotic support the Service received and the effec- 
tiveness of its management enabled it to distribute more 
than 3,800,000 separate articles to various hospitals, camps 
and individuals. And at no time in its existence did the 
American Receiving and Distributing Service forfeit its 
valued individuality. When it came, as it eventually did, 
under the Red Cross Commission for Great Britain, it 
merely inserted " Red Cross " after the word " American " 
in its title and widened its field to cover an increasing 
activity of helpfulness. 

The Service was obviously intended to answer emergency 
calls, such, for example, as one made on a Saturday after- 
noon for 50,000 surgical dressings for France. This order 
was filled from its admirably stocked shelves and shipped 
off, compactly boxed, on the following Monday morning ! 

But this was by no means an unusual demand at a time 
when hostilities were at their reddest. The Service re- 
ceived many such " hurry calls," some by written order, 



WHEN THE COMMISSION WAS BORN 61 

some by telephone and some by word of mouth, and often 
the workers were at their toil long after hours in order to 
dispatch the needed supplies and, at the same time, main- 
tain the watchword of the Service, that it never failed. 

However, it was a young British officer who tested the 
resources of the Service, and he did it all unwittingly. Go- 
ing along George Street, he saw a Ked Cross nag flying be- 
side the Stars and Stripes over the entrance to No. 15. 
He made for the place as fast as he could and went in, 
asking the first person he met if some one would not be so 
kind as to tie up his leg ! 

While this was no part of the work of the establishment, 
which, clearly, he had mistaken for a Ked Cross hospital, it 
happened that there were two XL S. Army nurses assisting 
in one of the workrooms. They took the officer in hand, 
obtained antiseptics and bandages from the storerooms and 
skillfully dressed the injury. And the unexpected patient 
never was permitted to learn that he had not walked into a 
Red Cross hospital. 

He apologized for giving so much bother, explaining 
that he had received a bayonet thrust the night before in an 
attack and that he had decided not to report the wound to 
his own surgeons at the front for fear they would cancel 
his few days' leave which had begun that morning. 

" Better to bring the old thing over here and ask you to 
tie it up, what ? " he asked, and then, as he cast a humorous 
eye at the disorderly strips of bandage the nurses had re- 
moved, "I didn't seem to get the hang of those beastly 
things, did I ? But I got to Blighty, so cheery-o ! And 
thanks so much." 

Toward the end of June, 1917, the capabilities of the 
London Chapter were greatly augmented by acceptance 
of the offer of Mrs. William Salomon, of New York, of her 
London home, St. Katharine's Lodge, with its four acres of 
grounds in Regent's Park, for use as a hospital. The 
history of this edifice is closely linked with that of the last 
of the Brunswick sovereigns. King George IV se- 



62 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

questered the park land and therein built the lodge, a 
large rambling, two-story structure of beautiful archi- 
tectural proportion and design. 

Mrs. Salomon agreed to equip and maintain it, stipulat- 
ing only that the Chapter provide and pay a staff of 
surgeons and nurses and assistants and that it be conducted 
for the orthopedic cases of British officers until such time 
as it should be needed for American officers. For disci- 
plinary and administrative purposes, no less than best to 
comply with Mrs. Salomon's wishes, it was decided to make 
St. Katharine's an official auxiliary of the British Mili- 
tary Orthopedic Hospital at Shepherd's Bush, one of 
England's greatest orthopedic centers. And in the 
management of its new venture, the London Chapter co- 
operated with the British War Office and the British Red 
Cross. Thirty beds were installed as quickly as possible 
and the first patients were received on August 1, 1917, Mr. 
Page, the American Ambassador, formally opening the 
hospital. 

There is little doubt that the situation of St. Kath- 
arine's Lodge had much to do with its record of success. 
It was surrounded by such spacious lawns and gardens 
that, close as it was to the teeming streets of the British 
capital, it lay in a quiet as profound as that of the Surrey 
countryside. Birds sang in the woods and squirrels, tame 
as kittens, played about the house, even scampering into 
the wards in search of dainties from the patients' trays. 

Orthopedically, St. Katharine's made a name for it- 
self, such was the skill of its surgeons. 

After the first American Bed Cross drive in the summer 
of 1917, the American Women's War Relief Fund suffered 
a marked diminution in contributions from the United 
States. Thereupon it applied to the London Chapter with 
a request that the latter should take over the two hospitals, 
Paignton and Lancaster Gate, the moneys of the Fund 
still remaining and also its incurred obligations. This the 
Chapter consented to do, with the proviso that the hospitals 



WHEN THE COMMISSION WAS BORN 63 

should be used for Americans when such necessity arose. 
As the officials of the Fund were in hearty accord with this, 
as was Mr. Singer, in so far as his property was concerned, 
the Chapter assumed the work on January 1, 1918, the 
original committee of the Fund remaining, by request, 
to manage the affairs of the hospitals as before. 

Early in the existence of the London Chapter, indeed, 
one of its first acts was the creation, in May, 1917, of 
a Care Committee, whose members would visit camps 
and hospitals and do all that lay within their power to 
" mother " the Aanericans who had adventured so far from 
home to go to war. What this work entailed can be real- 
ized when it is known that more than one million Ameri- 
cans passed through Great Britain on their way to the 
battle-fronts of France and that a majority of these came, 
at one time or another, under the benevolent eye of some 
member of this committee. 

" It is just a bit difficult for me to realize," said Mrs. 
R. P. Skinner, the chairman of this extensive activity, 
" that the Care Committee, whose original personnel 
numbered fourteen and whose first real labors were limited 
to visiting 180 Americans serving in the Canadian forces 
about two years ago " — she was speaking at the close of 
the year 1918 — " should have become the large lied Cross 
organization of today with its six hundred visiting com- 
mittee members in all parts of the United Kingdom. 

" Although we began on a very small scale, we were 
immediately recognized by the British War Office as the 
official American visiting organization. This gave us the 
greatest aid in our helpful task as our work was done at 
that time in British camps and hospitals. 

" After our work among the Canadian contingents had 
been in regular progress for some time and given us the ex- 
perience we needed for the task, our own army began to ar- 
rive on its way to the continent and we established twenty 
branch organizations throughout Great Britain. Our first 
actual contact with the soldiers of the American Army was 



64 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

at Chisledon, where we found about 150 men lacking in 
both clothing and funds. The British commanding 
officer applied to us for assistance and we at once distrib- 
uted the necessary relief. Later, thousands of our own 
men, brigaded with English or French troops, came back 
to England wounded. We visited every one of these, saw 
to it that they had comforts in the hospitals and recupera- 
tion centers — things the hospitals could not be expected to 
provide — and were, I hope, of the most cheering aid to 
them. 

" Whenever an American soldier, sick or wounded, 
whether belonging to the American Army or to the British 
or Canadian forces, arrived in any hospital or camp, the 
Care Committee was immediately notified and a visitor 
sent to see him and find out what he most needed. At the 
time the Committee's work was at the maximum of its ef- 
fectiveness, we were visiting more than 5,000 soldiers 
monthly." 

As American forces came into the war more numerously, 
the work of the Committee increased in volume and variety. 
It not only visited the men but furnished to the Home 
Communication Service detailed reports of all cases, these 
being forwarded to headquarters at Washington. There 
is probably nothing which so appeals to the American 
soldier on a foreign shore as a chance to talk to an Ameri- 
can woman. Whatever he has of shyness then drops away 
from him like an uncomfortable garment and he responds 
to efforts to cheer him as he would respond to no one else. 
ITje has under such circumstances, also, a far keener ap- 
preciation of whatever the visitor has brought to him, 
whether it be fruit, candy, soap, writing paper, woolen 
articles or what not. He takes, too, what courage is re- 
quired to ask for the things he really wants. 

This was what the visitors always did their utmost to 
learn, and it resulted in the granting of not a few singular 
requests. In one week a member of the Committee was 
asked by the men she visited to provide a pair of orthopedic 



WHEN THE COMMISSION WAS BORN 65 

boots, a copy of " Vanity Fair," a Jewish prayer book and 
a lemon pie ! 

When one of the visitors was asked what her duties were, 
she replied : " Well, I darn the men's socks, write their 
letters home — love letters, too, sometimes, when a hand 
is missing — do such shopping as they wish, read to them 
and very often just sit and listen while they talk. It isn't 
hard, it's a great happiness save when you feel, from the 
first, that the boy to whom you are striving with all your 
might to bring the sunshine is going to close his eyes on 
it all in just a little while, and that you'll come back one 
day to find another boy in his cot. And then you'll begin 
all over again, just as if the poor, thin, gone boy hadn't left 
a weight on your heart. 

" Oh, but lots of them get well and strong and go away, 
too, but so differently, and then you say to yourself that per- 
haps you helped him to get back into the sunny world — 
and that's your reward, that and the smile and the firm 
hand-clasp when you look into his eyes for perhaps the last 
time. Isn't it silly that I've fallen in love with at least 
half a dozen of these boys in the last month? And I've 
written that to the mother of every one of them ! " 

As hospital visitors to American soldiers in England, the 
palm belongs unquestionably to Colonel and Mrs. Albert W. 
Swalm, he the American Consul at Southampton, a Civil 
War veteran and a native of Iowa. Both were members of 
the Care Committee and began work long before America 
entered the war, when the only Americans they could find 
for their ministrations were in British or Canadian uni- 
forms. 

Prom 1914 until the last American soldier had left Eng- 
land, their hospital visits reached a total close upon twenty- 
six thousand! During 1918 alone their visits numbered 
more than twenty-four thousand ! They distributed com- 
forts of all kinds in nineteen camps and hospitals and were 
tireless in devotion to the men, undeterred even when seri- 
ous epidemics were sweeping through the camps. 



QQ THE PASSING LEGIONS 

Not contented alone with visiting the wounded, the Com- 
mittee inspected thirty-nine aviation camps in England and 
provided emergency hospitals and complete supplies for 
thirty-one. And as a valuable aid to the task of the visi- 
tors, the Chapter established a Library Department in 
rooms in Pall Mall placed at its disposal by Mr. John 
Wanamaker. By this means it was possible to provide sick 
or wounded Americans with about 10,000 books, 10,000 
American magazines and 10,000 American newspapers. 

It was upon these foundation stones, set so firmly by the 
American Women's War Eelief Fund and the London 
Chapter, that the American Red Cross Commission for 
Great Britain reared the structure which was to grow to 
such magnitude and prove of so great help in the many 
correlated tasks of a gigantic war. 

The expansion of its labors was achieved with all the 
haste that judgment, foresight, and expediency made 
possible. In good season, for obvious reasons of admin- 
istration and effectiveness of effort — not in any way by 
usurpation — the Commission took over the various activi- 
ties of its two forerunners, at the same time retaining their 
personnel and encouraging all their traditions of service. 

To be exact, it was not so much a " taking over " as an 
assumption by the Commission of financial responsibility 
for these already successful organizations and supervision 
of their extension to meet utterly unanticipated demands. 
Above all, it centralized management and permitted con- 
solidation of branches of endeavor which the Commission 
had already established. By January 1, 1918, the last of 
the activities of the two bodies had been transferred and 
thereafter the entire American service was conducted in 
the name of the American Red Cross Commission for Great 
Britain. 

As a preface to the narration of certain graphic incidents 
in the work of the Commission, it seems best, just at this 
point, to cast a glance ahead, to visualize its wide hospital 



WHEN THE COMMISSION WAS BORN 67 

field, for instance. In its work in Great Britain the Red 
Gross became actively connected with twenty-three hospitals 
of what may be called principal importance. Thirteen of 
these were hospitals of its own, four were army base hos- 
pitals, two were army camp hospitals and three were naval 
base hospitals. In addition there were a number of small 
Red Cross camp hospitals or infirmaries, usually of the tent 
or hutment type, in nearly fifty of the minor American 
camps throughout Great Britain. These, as a rule, had a 
capacity of six to twelve beds and were under the direction 
of the local officers of the Army Medical Corps. Also, 
many American soldiers were treated in British hospitals, 
the list of institutions engaged in this service including 
more than 200 British Army and British Red Cross 
hospitals. 

All of the American hospitals were directly in charge 
of army or navy medical authorities, the assistance of the 
Red Cross being called for in cases where the supply de- 
partments of either of these services found themselves un- 
able, for any of a variety of reasons, to meet the require- 
ments of an occasion or in time of sudden emergency. 
The function of the Red Cross, so far as hospitals were con- 
cerned, became, therefore, largely that of a supply and 
equipment organization, and this function was exercised 
through its personnel acting in conjunction with and under 
the direction of the army and navy medical officers. 

The general plan of hospital construction adopted by the 
army in the early summer of 1918 provided for a total of 
about 25,000 beds before the end of the following winter. 
Of this number, ten American Red Cross hospitals for sol- 
diers (excluding the two naval hospitals and a nurses' con- 
valescent home) would have furnished about 5,500 beds, 
that is, if the plans had not been terminated by the Armis- 
tice. This total would have been distributed generally as 
follows : 

A. R. C. Military Hospital at Mossley Hill ... 600 
A. R. C. Military Hospital at Paignton 1,000 



68 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

Base Hospital at Sarisbury Court 3,000 

Camp Hospital at Romsey 240 

Six small special hospitals 660 



Total 5,500 

At the time of the signing of the Armistice the total num- 
ber of beds actually available in Great Britain was about 
9,770, of which about 2,700 were in the ten American Red 
Cross hospitals. 

The largest number of Americans cared for at any one 
time in American hospitals in Great Britain was 9,310 on 
November 12, 1918. The number of Americans cared for 
in British hospitals varied greatly, but on October 30, 1918, 
there were 5,584 under treatment for wounds or illness in 
these institutions. 

As late as the end of September, the supply of hospital 
beds in Great Britain generally exceeded the demand, but 
during the months of October and November this was far 
from true, owing mainly to the influenza epidemic which 
flamed through the entire world, and large numbers of 
" flu " cases had to be sent to British hospitals from camps 
and incoming American transports. At other times a cer- 
tain number of cases continuously found their way to 
British institutions, not owing to lack of American beds, 
but to the fact that as American troops were brigaded with 
the British at the front, it was sometimes impossible to sort 
them out in transporting them back to England. Also, in 
cases of illness originating in the smaller American camps 
in England, it was frequently advisable to place these in 
convenient British hospitals rather than subject them to 
long journeys to American institutions. 

During the year 1918 the total number of Americans 
treated in British hospitals was 12,628, these being dis- 
tributed, as has been said, in more than 200 of them. The 
care of these men naturally offered to the Bed Cross a 
variety of problems, not only from the point of view of the 
Hospital Department, but also from that of the Supply De- 



WHEN THE COMMISSION WAS BORN 69 

partment and that of Home Communication as well as 
other branches of work. However, almost without excep- 
tion these scattered Americans were found, visited, their 
needs supplied and news of their condition sent to their 
people at home. 

The descent of the influenza marked a separate epoch in 
the hospital problem in Great Britain. More than half the 
deaths among the American forces in the Kingdom were 
directly due to this disease. It was in September that the 
scourge of " flu " manifested itself, reaching its most 
alarming state within about three weeks and then decreas- 
ing in intensity through a troubled period of three long 
months. In September there were 2,330 American cases. 
The total number of such patients from the week ending 
September 9 to that ending December 30 was 7,512, of 
which 5,158 were treated in American hospitals and 2,344 
in British institutions. During the same period the num- 
ber of deaths from pneumonia was 1,717, of which 1,404 
occurred in four weeks. 

The total number of American soldiers who were patients 
in hospitals in Great Britain during 1918 was 47,862. 
One-eighth of this number were treated in purely Red Cross 
hospitals, two-eighths, or one-quarter, in British hospitals 
and the remaining five-eighths in hospitals under direct 
control of the American Army's medical authorities. The 
latter figures, however, include patients in the Sarisbury 
Court base hospital and in the camp hospital at Romsey, 
both of which were built and equipped throughout by the 
Red Cross. 

In considering the figures relative to patients received in 
individual hospitals, it must be borne in mind that some of 
these hospitals had been in operation only a short time dur- 
ing the year while others, open for a long period, had only 
reached a large capacity during the last few months of the 
year. The figures for the Red Cross hospitals were : 

Mossley Hill 3,531 

Paignton 1,952 



70 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

Lingfield 283 

Romsey 1,870 

Sarisbury Court 1,263 

The IT. S. Army Base Hospitals had the following totals : 

Tottenham 3,827 

Portsmouth 3,660 

Dartf ord 4,273 

Hursley Park 3,761 

and the camp hospitals : 

Winchester 5,403 

Southampton 1,510 

Liverpool 3,866 

October, with its visitation of the influenza, yielded the 
high record of the year, as in that month there were 12,806 
Americans admitted to hospital, with a decrease to 7,401 in 
November. With the evacuation of American troops from 
England after the signing of the Armistice there were, in 
December, only 1,455 in hospital. 

About one-quarter of the cases in Great Britain were of 
wounded or injured men, 6,219 of these coming from 
Prance and 5,009 from various parts of Britain, a total of 
11,228. The cases of illness from Trance totaled 7,206, 
those from England 15,017 and from the arriving trans- 
ports 7,147, a total of 29,370. 

In the hospitals, the work of the Bed Cross and the Army 
Medical Corps was so closely connected that it would not be 
either possible or desirable to separate them for purposes of 
comparison. In the Bed Cross hospitals the Army Medical 
manned them and they were, to all intents and purposes, an 
integral part of the army machine. In the army hospitals, 
the Bed Cross provided a vast amount of equipment of 
varied character and was always on hand to help in time of 
need or trouble. Splints and splint material of all kinds 
were supplied by the Bed Cross through arrangement with 



WHEN THE COMMISSION WAS BORN 71 

the " Surgical Requisitions Association/' of London, for 
the manufacture of these appliances. 

To the American soldier and sailor the Red Cross was a 
" Fairy Godmother/' providing him with everything he 
needed and as there were more than a million of these 
Americans in Britain or passing through on the way to 
France, it will be understood that an almost incalculable 
number of things was distributed. In one month the Red 
Cross purchased for the American forces in Great Britain 
30,000 sweaters, 50,000 pairs of socks, 30,000 tooth 
brushes, 300,000 boxes of matches, 32,000 pounds of soap, 
800 baseball outfits, 500 harmonicas, 144,000 packages of 
chewing gum and 5,000,000 cigarettes. In order to handle 
its great stock of supplies, the Red Cross had nine ware- 
houses or depots in England, six in Ireland, two in 
Scotland and one in Wales. The largest of these ware- 
houses, the one in London, had 50,000 square feet of floor 
space and not an inch unoccupied. Its Receiving and Dis- 
tributing Service and its workrooms, where hundreds of 
thousands of bandages and dressings were made, helped 
magnificently to make the superb record of the Ajnerican 
Red Cross in Great Britain. 

That the American Army appreciated its aid was well 
attested in an address delivered by Major General John 
Biddle, Commanding the American Forces in Great 
Britain, to give him his full title, at the annual meeting of 
the London Chapter in October, 1918, in which he said: 

" I really do not know what the American Army would 
have done in England without the Red Cross. Everywhere 
the Red Cross is giving the best that can be given or asked 
for. 

" Our men are being cared for as well as they can be, and 
are being helped by the Red Cross in every way, both large 
and small. The hospitals in London and at Paignton and 
at Sarisbury and Mossley Hill are some of the largest of its 
gifts. 

" The Red Cross has given us the material for a large 



72 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

hospital at Komsey and has started a very big hospital near 
Southampton. At all our camps throughout the British 
Isles it has given us many things which we either could 
not get from the Government or could not get without much 
delay. This work has been done so well that nowadays 
every one applies first to the Red Cross whenever anything 
is wanted very particularly or very quickly. 

" In one camp which I visited the other day, I found that 
the Red Cross had furnished a fine club. In another I 
found at the end of our hospital wards an attractive little 
room fitted out with comfortable chairs, writing desks, and 
reading tables — and again it was the Red Cross. 

" It seems to me that every time I leave London to go 
anywhere I see something new that the Red Cross has been 
doing. 

" In the Otranto disaster, the first thing we did was to 
go to the Red Cross for materials and supplies of various 
kinds, and when we sent a boat to look after the survivors 
on the bleak Island of Islay, many provisions for the ex- 
pedition came from the Red Cross. 

" When we sent a large number of men to northern 
Russia, a short time ago, the Red Cross sent I don't know 
how many hundred tons of supplies. 

" We in the army all feel a gratitude to the Red Cross 
which it is hard for me to express in words. Without the 
Red Cross it would have been impossible to have given 
camps the comforts and conveniences and happiness which 
they have received in England. You have our hearty 
thanks for all you have done and are doing and intend to 
continue to do so long as the American soldier is in 
England." 

The navy also well knew the service the Red Cross 
rendered to its men, and in token of that understanding, 
here is what Admiral Sims, Commander of the American 
Naval Forces in British waters said when he, in turn, ad- 
dressed the London Chapter that day : 

" I have often heard people say, ' Why is it necessary 



WHEN THE COMMISSION WAS BORN 73 

to care for sick and wounded soldiers and sailors through 
an organization like the Red Cross ? Why doesn't the Gov- 
ernment take charge of it ? ' 

" The fact of the matter is that the Government is not 
capable of doing it the way the Red Cross does. 

" All Government activity, particularly this work, is 
governed by rules and regulations and an auditor. All 
these rules and regulations are made with a view to what 
is likely to happen, but all needs cannot be foreseen. 
When an emergency turns up, we sometimes have not the 
facilities, sometimes not the legal authority to do all that 
we ought to do. 

" The Red Cross man is like a combination of the Presi- 
dent of the United States and the Cabinet and both of the 
Houses. He can make a law as quickly as you can write a 
check. But we of the Government service cannot do it at 
all. 

" The emblem of the Red Cross is two small pieces of red 
tape, laid neatly across each other. But, so far as I know, 
this is the only bit of tape they've got. They can do things 
unhampered by rules and regulations. 

" When our men are sick or wounded we need quick ac- 
tion unhampered and free. Disasters like the Otranto 
show how valuable is its work — all that has been taken 
care of by the Red Cross. 

" Some months ago the Red Cross came to me and asked 
if they could establish emergency depots on the north coast 
of Ireland with a view to the possibility of some such dis- 
aster as this. The Government could not do it and it 
seemed pretty evident that it ought to be done. I told them 
to go ahead and these depots were of the greatest value in 
the Otranto disaster. 

" The Red Cross is ever present to help in time of 
trouble. All our people in America are doing everything 
they possibly can to forward its work. We have had many 
crosses to bear during this war, but the Red Cross has been 
the finest and best of them." 



CHAPTEE IV 

THE WORD THAT CAME IN MARCH 

IT is not possible adequately to convey the breadth and 
character of American Eed Cross work in Great 
Britain without explaining in brief the part which the 
British Isles played in the constantly expanding scheme of 
American military and naval operations. 

Great Britain, so far as the American Army was con- 
cerned, was not a battle area. But it was a great supply 
center and became also a gigantic " way-station " for troops 
en route to France. Early in the war thousands of Amer- 
ican air-men and mechanics had come to England and been 
dispersed to three score or more training camps in different 
parts of the islands, construction units had been stationed at 
several other points and a tank schooling station established 
in the south. But the original plan of the American Gov- 
ernment, it was understood, did not contemplate the trans- 
portation of an army through Great Britain ; instead, it was 
to be landed directly in Erance. It was the submarine 
peril and the congestion of ports in France that made a 
change in plan imperative. And before very long, the first 
of the million men who eventually passed through Britain 
began to arrive. 

Soon, indeed, great convoys of them were landed week 
after week. They had to be carried across England as 
railroad transport permitted and also be cared for during 
the unavoidable delays. 

Owing to the shifting nature of the submarine menace in 
British waters, the troopships varied their landing places 
and frequently it was not known until the last minute 
whether a convoy would put in at Plymouth, London, Liver- 
pool, Glasgow or some lesser port. 

74 



THE WORD THAT CAME IN MARCH 75 

For effectiveness under these conditions, an almost in- 
fallible transport organization was required, one capable of 
dealing with a sudden influx of thousands of men at any one 
of half a dozen points on the coast. Also, rest camps in 
which these men might be housed for perhaps four or five 
days before they resumed the journey toward the battle 
zones, had to be created and equipped with facilities for 
whole brigades. 

Troops newly arrived from America, quite naturally pic- 
tured to themselves in England the comfortable quarters 
and pleasant surroundings of the home cantonments from 
which they had been so recently mobilized. But at the 
outset they not infrequently discovered their " barracks " 
to mean tents and they themselves to be face to face with 
discomforts, if not real hardships, in the matter of unaccus- 
tomed food, clothing and climate. Upon many of the 
men the change in climate reacted seriously. The cold, 
penetrating dampness of England rendered them easily 
susceptible to sickness and they felt the need of heavy 
underwear, of heat-giving food, and of warm living 
quarters. Of course, as time went on, there was a steady 
improvement in all of these, but, to the last, there remained 
many things to which the men had to adapt themselves 
however short their sojourn in England. In the case of the 
training camps, many of them in out-of-the-way places all 
over the Kingdom and some with a personnel of not more 
than 200, the haste of their establishment precluded com- 
forts and conveniences which a longer preparation would 
have assured. 

For the American Navy, Great Britain was the center 
of operations. The headquarters for all activities in 
European waters were in a group of buildings adjoining the 
chief administration offices of the American Bed Cross 
Commission in Grosvenor Gardens. All around the coast 
of Britain were naval centers of activity of one kind or an- 
other. There was the Grand Fleet base at Scapa Flow in 
the Orkneys, off the northern tip of Scotland ; there were 



76 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

destroyer bases at Queenstown and Berehaven (one also at 
distant Gibraltar) ; mine-laying stations on tbe east coas*t, 
a battle cruiser port at Inverness, a coal base at Cardiff, a 
scout cruiser station at Plymouth and submarine bases on 
the west coast, with naval aviation stations scattered 
throughout the Isles. And even this list does not enum- 
erate them all. 

Thus it came about that in a country remote from the 
actual theater of war, the American Eed Cross found a 
great work to be done for the American Army and ISTavy, one 
which required a large and active organization constantly 
adaptable both to rapidly shifting demands and to frequent 
emergencies in widely separated regions of the Kingdom, 
because there was no American military or naval station in 
all Great Britain to which the Red Cross was not called to 
minister at some time in some way. Its service to many 
was maintained throughout their existence. 

For the watchword of this work, of the entire effort of 
the Eed Cross in Great Britain, was " SERVICE." And 
the organization carried its activities into every field, into 
every place where there was service to be performed for 
the men of the American Army and Navy. Whatever the 
need, the hour, or the distance, nothing dismayed or de- 
terred it. And more than one man to whom it ministered 
was frankly amazed to discover how far from home his 
own people had come and with what resources just to help 
him. 

Primarily, the service was for the sick and wounded of 
the military and naval forces and this effort was two-fold 
in direction : toward hospitalization and toward the care of 
men in hospital, including not only those in the larger in- 
stitutions, but the ones ill of minor complaints in the 
smaller American camp hospitals or, for one reason or an- 
other, patients in remote British hospitals. 

Thus the work of the Commission for Great Britain was 
by no means confined to American hospitals. Before the 
American wounded were brought from the Western Front 



THE WORD THAT CAME IN MARCH 77 

to England for treatment, many officers and men of the Ex- 
peditionary Eorce, on duty along the lines of communica- 
tion in England or at American rest camps or, again, sta- 
tioned at Royal Elying Corps posts throughout the country, 
had, of necessity, been sent to the nearest British Army or 
British Red Cross hospitals for such medical care as they 
required. Also, during the influenza epidemic of the 
autumn of 1918, thousands of Americans were received in 
these two hundred or more institutions, the number reach- 
ing a maximum of 5,584 at the end of October. In fact, 
during the entire year, the total of American patients so 
cared for was in excess of 12,500. 

At every one of these places, no less than at its own hos- 
pitals and those of the United States Army, the American 
Red Cross maintained its service, visiting the sick, provid- 
ing for them in accordance with their regimen or their 
needs and communicating in such way as they desired with 
their families or friends. Many of the smaller British 
hospitals, which, from time to time, admitted American 
patients, applied to the Red Cross for assistance, and this 
was never once withheld. Sometimes the aid thus given 
consisted of equipment which had not been possible of pro- 
vision from the institution's slender funds. Also, large 
quantities of surgical dressings and hospital garments, 
made by Red Cross Chapters in the United States, were 
furnished. In certain instances contributions of money 
were made toward the maintenance of hospitals. 

The secondary duty of the Red Cross was to the Ameri- 
can soldiers on the lines of communication — all England 
was essentially a part of those lines — and to the sailors of 
the navy, wherever orders or the vicissitudes of war might 
take them. 

At the opening of the year 1918 the only hospital beds 
available for the use of American soldiers were in two or 
three American Red Cross hospitals which were then being 
conducted for British troops. The great Army from the 
States, which was eventually to come to England, pause for 



78 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

breath and transport facilities, and then go hastening across 
to the Continent, was just beginning to arrive. In this 
newly created order of things, the Medical Corps of the 
Army and the Red Cross, as a supplemental organization, 
promptly joined in the endeavor to provide proper accom- 
modation for the inevitable percentage of hospital cases. 

Early in the year it had not been thought that there 
would be need for hospitalization in England beyond that 
of establishing a sufficient number of beds to care for the 
sick among a comparatively small American force stationed 
there and for the steadily increasing numbers of troops in 
transit to France. As there was always the possibility of 
an epidemic of some kind among men crowded in troop- 
ships, and also an expectation of numerous cases of pneu- 
monia during the first cold of autumn, these contingencies 
were well weighed in the Army Medical-Red Cross councils, 
but practically no plans for a greater extension of this pro- 
gram were either contemplated or thought necessary. It 
was generally understood that American troops in Erance 
were to be stationed somewhere along the extreme right 
wing of the battle line and that, for the care of the wounded, 
extensive hospital accommodations would be provided in the 
south of Erance itself. 

But in the latter part of March the ominous German 
offensive brought about many sudden changes, many seri- 
ous problems, created a stupendous task. Swiftly came 
the decision to brigade American troops with the British, 
to bring American sick and wounded from the front to 
England. These last must be cared for to the fullest ex- 
tent of modern medical and hospital practice, with no 
neglect of those already under treatment. The obligation 
laid upon the American Red Cross was no less weighty than 
that which the Army Medical Corps must bear. Now was 
the time for the making of Red Cross history ! 

Mossley Hill Hospital had already been provided by the 
Red Cross, work on it having commenced in the late 
autumn of 1917, as soon, in fact, as it was learned that 



THE WORD THAT CAME IN MARCH 79 

large bodies of American troops were to be convoyed to 
Great Britain. The construction of six additional one- 
story buildings, with an aggregate of 340 beds, bad brought 
its total capacity to 500 patients. This establishment 
was, from the outset, a Red Cross enterprise. 

The example which had been set by Mrs. Salomon in 
offering her London residence, St. Katharine's Lodge, as a 
hospital, was followed early in January, 1918, by Mr. and 
Mrs. Chester Beatty, he an American mining engineer, who 
had witnessed the success of the institution in Regent's 
Park. They offered for similar use their London home, 
Baroda House, which stood in a quiet street off Kensington 
Gardens, that Kingdom of Children, the playground of im- 
mortal " Peter Pan." The house had a distinction asid© 
from that of overlooking " The Big Penny," " The Round 
Pond " and " The Paths That Made Themselves." Like 
St. Katharine's Lodge, it had a royal founder, an Indian 
prince, the Gaekwar of Baroda, and its interior bore many 
traces of his oriental taste in decoration, but it had been 
extensively rearranged and equipped in accordance with 
modern occidental ideas. 

If the Red Cross had been permitted a choice of any of 
London's houses for a hospital, it could not have found one 
better suited to such employment. It had gardens with 
shaded walks and wide lawns and its lofty rooms with 
sunny windows made ideal wards. In releasing their 
house to the Commission, Mr. and Mrs. Beatty volunteered 
to equip it and contribute the funds for its maintenance, the 
Red Cross providing doctors, nurses, orderlies, and all 
necessary hospital supplies. Welcoming this arrangement, 
the Commission installed forty beds and opened the wards 
for patients on March 20, 1918, the first cases received be- 
ing those of British officers. 

Baroda House Hospital was originally intended for the 
care of convalescents, but it was soon required for surgical 
and medical cases exclusively. Both British and American 
officers were treated during the early part of the year, the 



80 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

understanding being that, for the time, about one-third of 
the beds should be set aside for American Army patients, 
the entire institution to be available for their use when such 
need should arise. As it never did arise, and as the Red 
Cross expressed a wish to close the place on February 1, 
1919, the Royal Army Medical Corps at once took it over 
for the British Government, thus relieving the Red Cross 
of further management or control. 

Thus it will be seen that at the time of the ominous 
events at the front in March, 1918, which demanded a com- 
plete change in already matured plans, the American Red 
Cross had five available hospitals, each then occupied in car- 
ing for a considerable number of patients. These five, in 
the order of their establishment, were: " Oldway," or, as it 
was more familiarly known, Paignton ; Lancaster Gate, St. 
Katharine's Lodge, Mossley Hill and Baroda House. 

The army, in the emergency it faced — the expected ar- 
rival of large convoys of wounded before it could prepare 
adequately for their reception — turned immediately to the 
British authorities, explained its inability to build great 
hospitals in so short a time and asked for the use of what- 
ever already established English institutions might be 
spared. After a careful survey of conditions, the British 
considerately allotted the hospitals at Hursley Park, Ports- 
mouth, Dartford, and Tottenham. Hitherto, the first of 
these had served as a military hospital, the other three as 
insane asylums or fever hospitals or for medical work not 
directly connected with the war. 

Having these institutions at its disposal, the army im- 
mediately sought the aid of the Red Cross in refitting them 
for their new purposes and in providing comforts and 
similar benefits for their patients while it went on with the 
task of added construction. 

Hursley Park Hospital, five miles southwest of Win- 
chester, was, before American occupation, used by the 
British in connection with an aviation rest camp situated on 







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THE WORD THAT CAME IN MARCH 81 

the neighboring slopes. As it was comparatively small, the 
American authorities promptly undertook its enlargement 
to a capacity of 3,000 beds, this being the standard size 
adopted for base hospitals in England. Such a program 
naturally called for extensive participation by the Red 
Cross which, in addition to repairing and renovating it 
throughout, supplied a complete X-ray installation, op- 
erating room equipment, sterilizing apparatus, dental serv- 
ice, a medical library, ward furniture, and quantities of 
drugs and hospital necessaries generally. It also equipped 
and furnished the nurses' and officers' quarters and fitted 
out a recreation room for the enlisted personnel, providing 
them not only with a piano but with complete paraphernalia 
for a " jazz band." 

The period of the influenza epidemic of 1918 was a try- 
ing time at Hursley, which had not at that time reached 
great size, and it was necessary to improvise a number of 
wards from the old barracks on the hill above the main hos- 
pital. To these the Red Cross supplied thousands of 
articles of equipment. As an index of the emergency : on 
August 30th there were only 225 patients in the hospital, 
but in the next few days the number rose suddenly to more 
than 650, many of these being serious pneumonia cases. 
In November the number of patients rose again to nearly a 
thousand, including a large convoy of " gassed " men from 
the Western Front. 

The Red Cross dental service at Hursley was much ap- 
preciated. It was not only for the patients in the base hos- 
pitals, but also for the men in adjacent American camps, 
and the number of cases treated in a single day frequently 
reached seventy-five. 

Entertainment of patients was a feature of Red Cross 
work at the hospital. There were numerous band concerts 
and theatrical performances and the Red Cross supplied 
talking machines and popular records to every ward, to 
which also a small portable moving picture machine, the 



82 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

gift of the Eed Cross, was carried for the diversion of those 
too ill to attend the entertainments in the building assigned 
for the purpose. 

Another highly successful ministration was the distribu- 
tion of reading matter to the patients. There is nothing 
which the American appreciated so much as his " home 
newspaper," and while it was not always possible for the 
Red Cross to furnish each man with a paper from his own 
town, it was generally arranged to give him one from some 
near-by city, containing much local and sectional news of in- 
terest to him. American magazines and novels were like- 
wise supplied and in many cases special books were pro- 
vided upon request. In fact, every legitimate need of the 
men was attended to, to the best of Red Cross ability. 
Checks were cashed, missing barrack bags traced or re- 
placed, watches repaired, shoes mended — there was not a 
wish it slighted. Special foods for convalescents, includ- 
ing fresh oysters, a great luxury in England, were supplied 
and the medical officers declared more than once that the oys- 
ters " marked the turning point in the patient's appetite." 

In one day at Hursley the Red Cross dealt with seven 
hundred separate appeals for various needed articles. 
These requests came not only from the base hospital but 
also from the American construction company stationed 
near there and from the men at Standon, a quarantine camp 
for " contacts," that is, men who had been exposed to com- 
municable disease. The usual camp service work was ex- 
tended to Standon from the Hursley offices of the Red 
Cross, recreation rooms being provided and supplied with 
musical instruments, newspapers and books. An officers' 
mess and camp offices were fitted up and bathing arrange^ 
ments made for the officers. Upon two occasions the Red 
Cross authorized the construction of shower baths for the 
enlisted men, but after the work had been begun the army 
authorities thought best to postpone it until a definite de- 
cision had been reached as to the permanency of the camp. 

The work at Standon consumed many Red Cross sup- 



THE WORD THAT CAME IN MARCH 83 

plies, for large numbers of the men there were " casuals," 
arriving under emergency conditions and with a great 
variety of needs which the Eed Cross was well equipped to 
supply on the spot. During the five months of this camp's 
full occupation, more than 35,000 men passed through it on 
their way to France. 

The institution at Portsmouth, a group of stone and brick 
asylum buildings, the second to be taken over by the army, 
was opened as an American base hospital of 500 beds. 
The provision of further space went forward rapidly and 
— to look ahead — had reached about 1,900 beds just be- 
fore the Armistice. In all, more than 3,500 patients were 
admitted to it. 

Here the Red Cross maintained a large office close to the 
hospital, the headquarters building, Stratford Lodge on the 
Parade overlooking the Sound, including reception, writing 
and recreation rooms, all of which were cheerfully placed 
at the disposal of convalescents and as cheerfully used by 
them every day. The work of the Red Cross staff was not 
confined strictly to the base hospital, but extended to 
American soldiers in neighboring British institutions, not- 
ably the Alexandria Military Hospital, at Cosham; the 
Fifth Southern General Hospital and the Milton infirmary. 
One of its staff was assigned exclusively to entertainment 
and recreation and, by him, dances and theatrical entertain- 
ments were arranged. Tennis courts, croquet lawns and 
baseball diamonds were also provided and the equipment 
for all these pastimes purchased by the Red Cross. 

Portsmouth Hospital had the finest baseball diamond in 
all Europe and the soldier patients never failed to boast of 
it to visiting teams from other American hospitals when 
they came down to engage the crack Portsmouth team. 
When games of this kind occurred, the Red Cross was gen- 
erally called upon to pay the traveling expenses of the 
visiting nine. Incidentally, the uniforms for all of the 
baseball players, throughout England, were made in the 
Red Cross workrooms at 36 Grosvenor Gardens and dec- 



84 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

orated with distinguishing insignia. The teams in the 
" Big Leagues " were not better equipped ! 

On four evenings a week, the big concert hall of the hos- 
pital was transformed from its every-day use as a mess room 
to that of a cinema theater, with apparatus and films fur- 
nished by the Red Cross. At the time of the signing of the 
Armistice — to look ahead again — a " Red Cross Hall " 
to seat 1,400 persons, with other rooms for rest and recrea- 
tion, had been partly constructed. 

Other services rendered by the Red Cross at Portsmouth 
were the provision of a motor stage to take the patients for 
recuperative excursions over the countryside, and the con- 
duct of a hospital " Exchange " where men could purchase 
modest " luxuries " and exchange their English, French, 
or American money for the currency they needed. 

The appreciation which such Red Cross work at Ports- 
mouth won from the men and from their relatives at home, 
is indicated by a letter received at Stratford Lodge from a 
woman in New York City who wrote that she had decided 
to put all the money she had, aside from her actual home- 
running expenses, into the work of the Red Cross, as an 
expression of her gratefulness for the services rendered by 
its Portsmouth staff to her young brother, who was for a 
time a patient in the hospital. 

Dartford was the largest of the American Base Hospitals 
in England, reaching a capacity of more than 2,000 beds. 
It was about fifteen miles out of London, located in a grove 
on a hilltop in the midst of a rolling country, and had been 
used by the Metropolitan Asylums Board for the treatment 
of fever convalescents. In addition to a large administra- 
tion building, it comprised twenty ward structures, each 
accommodating 100 patients; homes for staff and nurses, 
laboratories, warehouses, and allied out-buildings — all in 
all, a well planned institution. In the valley just below 
was a large overflow hospital which the British retained for 
the care of wounded German prisoners of whom there were 
about twelve hundred. 



THE WORD THAT CAME IN MARCH 85 

The army medical unit stationed at Dartford consisted 
of about fifty surgeons, 100 nurses and 200 enlisted men. 
Most of the staff came from King's County Hospital, in 
Brooklyn, N. Y. The Red Cross was called in as soon as 
the army took over the place and established its representa- 
tives there, including an officer in charge of activities gen- 
erally, a Home Communication officer, two women canteen 
workers and a score of Care Committee visitors. 

In the matter of equipment and supplies, the Red Cross 
provided furniture, surgical instruments, operating-room 
fixtures, laboratory apparatus, large quantities of drugs and 
dressings, musical instruments, comforts and clothing — 
everything necessary for the happiness and well-being of 
the patients. Dartford was the first American Base Hos- 
pital to be visited by the King and Queen of England, and 
if the reader will turn to the chapter which relates that 
royal visit, he will learn more of what the Red Cross did 
there — indeed, he will have the pleasure of accompanying 
King George on his tour of inspection of Red Cross activi- 
ties at the hospital and of meeting some of the men who 
helped to break the Hindenburg Line ! 

During the time Dartford was open (it was closed, prac- 
tically, at the end of 1918) 4,437 American soldiers passed 
through it. Among them were forty deaths, chiefly due to 
pneumonia. The largest single convoy of patients it re- 
ceived consisted of 202 men, followed immediately by the 
second largest, 160 men. The latter were all influenza 
cases from an incoming transport, and in this group there 
were twenty-five deaths. The largest outgoing convoy of 
discharged patients totaled 962 men, who sailed on the 
Saxonia for America on December 16, and were met and 
ministered to on the steamship pier by the Red Cross. 

Tottenham, which, likewise, was made into a base hospi- 
tal, was on the outskirts of London, only six miles from 
American Red Cross Headquarters. By reason of this 
proximity it was possible to keep in unusually close touch 
with the institution. Although its needs could be fulfilled 



86 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

by the headquarters staff, the Eed Cross had an officer sta- 
tioned permanently at the hospital, with such assistance 
as was required for the work of the Home Communication 
and Canteen Services. The women visitors of the Care 
Committee assigned there were of great help in the distri- 
bution of supplies. 

The articles given away by the Eed Cross at Tottenham 
were infinite in their number and their variety, ranging 
from things of personal use to oranges, from chocolate bars 
to winter underclothing. Requests which came from the 
army for this hospital were similar to those made in behalf 
of other institutions, all of which were met with the usual 
dispatch. 

For the purposes of a recreation hut, the rector of the 
neighboring parish church of St. Ann's gave to the Eed 
Cross the use of the Parish Hall, which was well equipped 
for such service when it came into Eed Cross hands, hav- 
ing a large chamber for entertainments, a library and writ- 
ing and billiard rooms. At the time of the signing of the 
Armistice the Eed Cross had drawn up plans for improve- 
ments and additions to this center of diversion for the men. 

The army built many hut wards at Tottenham to increase 
its initial capacity of 500 beds and these were furnished by 
the Eed Cross in conformity with the wishes of the medi- 
cal authorities. When hostilities ceased there were 1,500 
beds at Tottenham Hospital. 

Such is, briefly, the account of what the Eed Cross did 
to help the army in one of its hours of grave emergency. 
And throughout it all, the work of the Eed Cross and that 
of the Army Medical Corps was most cordially correlated 
and inter-dependent. 

One matter to which the hospital department of the Com- 
mission early turned its attention was the provision of suit- 
able convalescent hospitals and camps. The casual camp 
of the army at Winchester was so used to a limited extent, 
but the Eed Cross was requested to provide something in 



THE WORD THAT CAME IN MARCH 87 

the nature of a convalescent hospital for officers. If the 
war had gone on through another winter there would have 
been great need for this kind of institution, because Eng- 
land was the natural place to w 7 hich to send men recovering 
from long terms in hospital. It was happily out of range 
of Germany's guns, if not her bombing planes, and here was 
a country of proverbially, historically beautiful regions, a 
deep inland quiet to be found in the shortest of journeys, a 
kindred people speaking the same language and few marks 
of battle such as scarred northern France. It was an ideal 
spot for recuperation. 

Straightway the Red Cross went to work and very soon 
the first of the American convalescent hospitals for officers 
was opened at Lingfield, in sunny Surrey, about thirty-five 
miles out of London on the country estate of Colonel and 
Mrs. H. Spender Clay. The house furnished room for 
more than 100 beds, but it was more of a home than a hos- 
pital, owing to the presence of Mrs. Spender Clay, who 
remained as " hostess," taking charge of all the household 
arrangements and assisting the medical staff in countless 
ways. Atj the time the Armistice came the house was 
nearly filled to capacity, and for some while afterward it 
continued to receive large numbers of officers who were 
sent there for a few clays of rest and recuperation before 
the journey to America. Not long after the Christmas 
holidays the hospital was closed. 

Nearer to London, in Wimbledon, the Red Cross estab- 
lished another convalescent hospital for officers, but this 
was only a few weeks before the signing of the Armistice. 
It was at the home of Mr. Percy Chubb, of New York. 
His residence, known as " Cannizaro," had previously been 
used as a recuperation place for British officers and the Red 
Cross agreed that it should continue to receive them until 
it be needed by the American forces. Occasional Ameri- 
can officers were guests there but it was mainly used by the 
British and was open for some time after the beginning of 



88 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

1919. It was within half an hour of central London and 
was probably the only hospital in all Europe which could 
boast its own golf course. 

For American naval men in the neighborhood of London 
the Red Cross opened a hospital at Aldford House in the 
capital's fashionable Park Lane. The use of this spacious 
mansion was given for the purpose by the Hon. Mrs. Fred- 
erick Guest. It occupied an entire block and one of its fea- 
tures, very rare in a London house, was that it had only 
two stories, so none of the wards was more than a single 
flight of steps from the ground floor. As it had been previ- 
ously used and partly equipped as a hospital for British 
patients, only a portion of its fittings had to be furnished 
by the Red Cross and it was, therefore, opened a very short 
time after the naval authorities made their request for such 
an institution. It had at the beginning a capacity of fifty 
beds and was at once placed under command of a navy 
surgeon and staff. In a little while after its inception the 
navy took it over and had it still in operation in the spring 
of 1919. 

With so great a corps of nurses, numbering tens of 
thousands, in service with the American Army in France 
and also in Great Britain, the Red Cross provided them 
with a cheerful home in which to spend their convalescence 
from illness or breakdown and for this purpose leased 
Colebrook Lodge, the residential estate of Mr. John T. 
Ryan, of Detroit and Toronto. It was on West Hill, 
Putney, a suburb of London. The house was a roomy, 
three-story structure built upon the 300-year-old founda- 
tions of Putney Manor House. There were three acres of 
lawns and gardens and close at hand were the healthful 
downs of Putney Heath and Wimbledon Common. In the 
beginning there were accommodations for about thirty 
nurses and the house was well filled from the date of its 
opening. During the influenza epidemic it was crowded 
to its utmost capacity. Nurses needing special hospital 



THE WORD THAT CAME IN MARCH 89 

treatment were not received but were cared for in special 
wards of the army base hospital. 

In the early summer the Ked Cross nurses were well or- 
ganized and did excellent work, first at Mossley Hill, Paign- 
ton, and at Lancaster Gate, St. Katharine's Lodge and 
Baroda House and later at Alclford House and the Red 
Cross naval hospital at Cardiff. Meanwhile many hospi- 
tals were being opened in Great Britain which the Red 
Cross had to staff temporarily, that is, until they were taken 
over by the regular army personnel, after which they were 
generally transferred to the Army Nurse Corps Reserve 
and added to the units sent by the War Department from 
the United States to the new hospitals. 

During the latter half of the year the Chief Red Cross 
Nurse was able to furnish nurses from her staff to meet 
several emergencies, as when troopships arrived with a 
staggering number of " flu" cases, too many to be handled 
by the staffs of hospitals near the ports. Also they were 
provided in the cases of soldiers or sailors who were ill at 
some point too far from a hospital to risk moving them. 

On August 1, 1918, there were on duty in Great Britain 
fifty-two American Red Cross nurses (not of the Army 
Nursing Corps) and these were attached to six hospitals. 
After that date the demand for Red Cross nurses gradually 
decreased until, on December 1, there were only thirteen 
on duty and these in two hospitals. 



CHAPTER V 

ALONG THE L. O. C. 

IMPERATIVE as was the demand for hospital accom- 
modation in Great Britain, and promptly and effi- 
ciently as the Red Cross provided it and undertook the 
welfare of the sick and wounded men of the American 
forces, its service on the " Lines of Communication " was 
too important, too extensive to be thought of as quite sec- 
ondary. In one sense it was the ranking service, for it 
was the first to minister to the American soldier, first to 
give him tangible evidence that the American Red Cross 
was there in Great Britain, just as it was at home, to help 
him, to cheer him up, to take care of him. It greeted 
him upon the instant of his arrival at a British port, 
wherever that port might be, standing on the threshold 
of a new world to give him welcome. He saw its banner 
or its painted symbol long before his transport drew into 
its berth and he knew it meant something he had never 
expected to find in that distant land : " his own kind of 
people," friends in a country of strangers — home. Nor, 
from that moment, did he ever find these lacking. No 
matter where he went, the Red Cross had gone on ahead, to 
camp, to hospital, to the troopship which, in turn, would 
take him to France, ready always to serve him to the limit 
of its great resources, with the unlimited energy of its 
workers. Also it was on the pier to meet him when he re- 
turned, sick or wounded, from the front ; it sat beside his 
cot; it helped him idle away the tedious hours of his con- 
valescence — or it wrote the letter which would tell some 
one in far-off America why he was never coming home 
again. 

As it was first to meet him, so it was last to speed him 

90 



ALONG THE L. 0. C. 91 

when the time came for his returning and he sailed away 
with eager eyes set toward " God's own country." Even 
then it sent a man on the transport with him in order 
that its attentions, to which he had become so accustomed, 
might be maintained to the end. 

" Camp Service " was the broad, official term employed 
to designate this watchfulness over the men of the Ameri- 
can army and navy, but it can be readily seen to what 
ramifications it led, particularly as it included canteen 
service, which was dotted about Great Britain wherever the 
troops passed. And it was as active about the hospitals as 
about the camps. Perhaps a better way in which to con- 
vey the intent of the Red Cross in thus serving the men, 
is to say that it strove both materially and spiritually — 
the spirit of a smile and a hand-clasp and a happy word — 
to make up to them the home things, the home helpfulness 
and interest they had left so far behind. How ably the 
Ked Cross succeeded — well, ask any man who went 
across. 

As canteen service was the first manifestation of the 
Red Cross to the troops arriving in Great Britain, figures 
— usually dull, drab things in any narrative — will per- 
haps most usefully serve to indicate its magnitude. Can- 
teen activity was largely centered in Liverpool, London, 
Southampton, and Glasgow, although six other ports were 
used for the landing of troops to a limited extent at various 
times, and the following figures, showing the number of 
men debarked at each port during the war, will tell their 
own story of the Red Cross task, for every one of these men 
was served, many of them several times over during their 
stay in Great Britain : 

Liverpool 792,139 

London 84,147 

Southampton 41,763 

Glasgow 41,530 

Manchester 6,289 

Avonmouth 5,030 



92 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

Cardiff 2,089 

Swansea 1,694 

Newport 1,334 

Barry Docks 1,331 

Total 977,346 

The totals by months prove that in July the greatest 
number was brought to the British Isles, with August and 
September closely second in America's stupendous mili- 
tary movement which amazed the world : 

Prior to January 1, 1918 86,765 

January 15,077 

February 5,070 

March 26,286 

April 27,364 

May 101,266 

June 122,825 

July 167,512 

August 154,192 

September 141,870 

October 94,536 

November 34,583 

Total 977,346 

For the purpose of most effectively serving the needs 
of this vast inflow of troops, not only at the debarkation 
points but also later in the rest camps and smaller training, 
aviation, and construction posts, the American Red Cross 
divided Great Britian into eleven districts, in each of 
which a central office was maintained with a Red Cross 
officer in charge of the work and such assistants as the 
needs of his particular neighborhood required. These 
districts were: 



Group I 


Group II 


Group III 


London 


Cambridge 


Plymouth 


Winchester 


Oxford 


Cardiff 


Liverpool 


Lincoln 


Scotland 


Southampton 




Ireland 



ALONG THE L. 0. C. 93 

The area comprised in Group I included the great Amer- 
ican rest camps, the principal ports of debarkation and 
embarkation, the base section headquarters in London, 
and a number of small aviation, tank, and construction 
camps. Group II included mainly aviation camp areas. 
Group III took in regions in which the activities of the 
Red Cross were scattered and of great variety, naval as 
well as military. 

From London headquarters, the military relief work 
of the Eed Cross included service to American troops ar- 
riving in oversea transports at the Royal Albert and Til- 
bury Docks, to the wounded debarked at Dover, to returned 
prisoners of war coming in by way of Dover or Ripon, and 
the maintenance of canteens in London for the staff and 
other personnel of army headquarters and for transient or 
casual troops passing through the capital or on leave there, 
to the number, usually, of two or three thousand. 

The service to troops in hospitals included, in the London 
area, the large base hospitals at Tottenham and Dart- 
ford, the Red Cross hospitals at Lancaster Gate, Regent's 
Park, Kensington Palace Gardens, Park Lane, and the con- 
valescent hospitals at Lingfield and Wimbledon. There 
were also a large number of British hospitals in this area 
which, from time to time, accommodated numbers of 
American soldiers. Red Cross camp infirmaries were es- 
tablished at four camps in the London district: Ching- 
ford, Eastbourne, London Colney, and New Romney. In 
the small American aviation camps and construction posts 
the work of the Red Cross officers was very similar in all 
the various areas of their activities. In the London area 
there were at various times from fifteen to twenty such 
camps, the Red Cross inspectors visiting them all and 
filling their needs as these were announced by their com- 
manding officers. These supplies included alarm clocks, 
bathtubs, hair-clippers, pictures, griddles, shoe-repair out- 
fits, cough lozenges, cook uniforms, goggles, washboards, 
pie pans, field-hospital tents, shoe brushes, flags, portable 



94 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

huts, brooms, and stoves, in addition to the usual provision 
of sweaters, socks, helmets, slippers, shoes and toilet 
requisites. In several instances complete field-hospitals 
were provided and thoroughly equipped. 

At the time of the signing of the Armistice, there were 
but sixteen of these small camps in the area and when 
arrangements had been made between the American Air 
Service and the British Air Force for their evacuation, 
this was accomplished within twenty days. 

One of the tremendous undertakings of the American 
Army in Great Britain was the construction of huge day- 
and-night-bombing camps in the south of England, at and 
in the vicinity of Ford Junction. Here an army build- 
ing plan of vast importance was under way throughout 
1918, aiming at the destructive bombing of Germany 
in 1919. In these camps the Red Cross not only attended 
to the wants of the construction battalions, but was plan- 
ning for the still larger work when the camps should be 
completed and American aviation squadrons installed in 
their quarters. Plans were made for adequate infirmaries 
and Red Cross warehouses in every one of these camps 
and work was well advanced when the Armistice called a 
halt. In every case the necessary Red Cross buildings 
would have been ready before the opening of the camp. 

At its maximum of efficiency, the .Red Cross canteen 
service — one of its most valuable endeavors — comprised 
a dozen units and a personnel somewhat above 400 workers. 
The expedition with which American troops were conveyed 
out of Great Britain after the Armistice caused a propor- 
tionate curtailment of this work, but by the time it was 
concluded it 'had served more than a million and a half 
meals to the men of the army and navy ; it had given away 
hundreds of millions of cigarettes, packages of tobacco, 
and bars of chocolate and hundreds of thousands of gal- 
lons of coffee. It had performed its tasks at every hour 
known to the clock, was never late for any service, and 



ALONG THE L. 0. C. 95 

surmounted obstacles with the certainty if not the speed of 
a crack 220 hurdler. 

The army headquarters canteen for officers was estab- 
lished in response to requests from American officers sta- 
tioned in London, who asked if the Red Cross could do 
anything to help in providing meals for the constantly in- 
creasing staffs working at both army and navy headquart- 
ers in Grosvenor Gardens. Restaurant facilities in that 
section of the city were so overtaxed at the time and so 
many new difficulties were constantly arising, owing to the 
scarcity and rationing of foods, that it was decided to act 
immediately. Most of the ground floor and basement of 
the main headquarters building of the army, the Belgrave 
Mansions Hotel, was allotted for the purpose and in a short 
time four large dining rooms and the necessary kitchens, 
all the equipment for which the Red Cross supplied, were 
opened. The average number of meals served was at first 
650 luncheons and 225 dinners weekly, but later the 
figures rose to about 1,500 luncheons and 500 dinners. 
These were furnished at a uniform price of two shillings 
and sixpence for luncheon and three shillings sixpence for 
dinner. The menus were simple but many purely Ameri- 
can dishes were introduced and the restaurant became 
very popular. A special room was reserved for the com- 
manding general and his immediate staff where they could 
gather each day at luncheon for a conference, and where 
officers who were detained past the regular hour could 
obtain what they wished. From the beginning this 
restaurant paid all its own expenses, for, from its opening 
on June 5 until headquarters were abandoned, more than 
28,000 meals were served. As soon as this enterprise 
was running smoothly, a similar one for women" workers 
at headquarters was installed with a capacity of 125 seats. 
This achieved a weekly average of 730 jpatrons and also 
was self-supporting from the outset. 

It is safe to say that scarcely one Londoner in ten thou- 



96 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

sand realized at the time how extensively the Port of 
London was used during the late summer and early autumn 
of 1918 as a gateway for American soldiers arriving in 
Europe. The city itself saw practically nothing of them, 
for the British capital is a place of tremendous areas and 
distances and the Royal Albert and Tilbury Docks, where 
the troopships debarked their men, are in districts far 
remote from those of ordinary town traffic and occupa- 
tion. There was no delaying there by which to call at- 
tention to them; within a short time of their arrival the 
American soldiers were almost invariably put into trains 
which were already awaiting them at the docks and 
hastened to Winchester by routes with which a large ma- 
jority of Londoners never came in touch. If marches 
across the city were necessary they were made at night, 
because troop movements in the neighborhood of London 
were guardedly conducted. 

As a matter of fact, the Port of London was the second 
in importance in the British Isles in point of numbers 
of Am erican soldiers debarked from the trans-Atlantic 
troopships. It welcomed no such thousands as Liverpool, 
it is true, but more than twice as many as either South- 
hampton or Glasgow, its nearest rivals. The first troops 
came in May, 1918. The numbers of officers and men arriv- 
ing at the London docks during that nlonth and those suc- 
ceeding, when the stream of incoming Americans taxed 
every port facility of Prance as well as England, were as 
follows : 

Month Officers Men Total 

May 104 4,746 4,850 

June 751 22,605 23,356 

July 529 17,260 17,789 

August 464 18,105 18,569 

September 428 17,101 17,529 

October 52 2,002 2,054 

Totals 2,328 81,819 84,147 

Thus, from May to November, the Red Cross work for 



ALONG THE L. 0. C. 97 

so large a military force was of much importance. 
Although the army and navy authorities strove to keep 
secret the time of troopship arrivals until the vessels them- 
selves were practically in sight of the docks, the Red Cross, 
thanks mainly to the good friends and the " underground 
wireless " apparatus of the resourceful " Flying Squad- 
ron/ 7 managed to get news of them and was always on 
hand to see that no man landed without a cup of coffee, 
or a bite to eat and a welcoming word. 

In the early days of transport arrival the Red Cross 
served the troops from rolling canteens — " tanks," they 
were called — supplies being carried from the London 
warehouses. Sometimes local organizations volunteered 
assistance and lent suitable places for the preparation of 
refreshments. But very soon, in order that the wants of 
the newcomers might be better and more conveniently 
satisfied, the Red Cross established stations at both the 
docks. The canteen at Royal Albert was set up in a pier 
building lent by the Blue Funnel Line of steamships and 
that at Tilbury in the Thames Church Mission, the use 
of which was graciously proffered by St. John's Church, 
the Red Cross renovating and furnishing the building to 
serve its new purpose. 

The last time the canteen at Tilbury was in service will 
be remembered for many a day. It was in mid-December, 
when the Saxonia sailed for New York with 1,400 Ameri- 
can wounded from the hospitals in Great Britain. There 
had been joyous anticipation among those told off for the 
voyage, because it meant that they were to be at home for 
Christmas. Although they had to spend many hours in 
their hospital trains — from the hospitals in the south 
to Waterloo station in London, thence through the city and 
across the Thames and down to the far-away docks — they 
cheered themselves with the knowledge that they were 
actually " going home." In one of the trains were 170 
men, all leg cases, the larger number of them on crutches 
from bad wounds or amputations, some hobbling with the 



98 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

aid of stout canes. These were the most cheerful of all 
the disabled men ; even the very sick ones in their cots, and 
these prepondered m the convoy, seemed to envy them, 
empty trousers-legs and all. 

And so they came to Tilbury and to the big steam- 
ship that had been made ready for them. The Red Cross, 
too, had prepared, not alone by assembling supplies for 
distribution, but by detailing representatives to accompany 
the trains from the hospitals to the docks. Once there, the 
canteen service for the walking cases was simple enough; 
these could gather about the tables in the mission and do 
much toward helping themselves. With the cot cases it 
was very different. These were carried from the trains 
by British stretcher bearers and placed in rows in pier 
sheds for checking before being swung aboard ship. While 
they were thus waiting, the Red Cross canteen women 
went among them with coffee, sandwiches, oranges, choco- 
late and cigarettes and all the cheerfulness they could 
muster. Many of the men were too weak to rise to drink 
or were prevented by their wounds from making the effort, 
sc the workers lifted their heads and held the coffee cups 
wherever it was possible. Others drank with the aid of 
glass tubes and all received their share of the good things. 
Oranges, cigarettes, and chocolate were tucked under the 
cot coverings for another day, and when time came to hoist 
the men aboard in the derrick slings, several went gayly up 
in the air with cups of coffee in their hands and small- 
boy grins on their thin faces. 

As the cot cases were justly deemed the most serious 
in the convoy and as first attention was given to placing 
them on the ship, the leg cases, those 170 men from Dart- 
ford, were, after they filed from the canteen, left rather 
to themselves to await their turn to embark. As no par- 
ticular provision for this period had been made in their 
behalf, there was nothing for them to do save " stand 
around " on the pier. A large number of these men had 
never before been on crutches and were suffering great 



ALONG THE L. 0. C. 99 

discomfort from their wounds and also from the new and 
tiring method of locomotion imposed upon them. So, one 
by one, they backed against a shed and rested there, striv- 
ing their utmost to forget their troubles because in a little 
while they would go aboard and then everything would be 
all right. But they stood there for a long, long time, 
would probably have remained in their discomfort till 
the end if a Red Cross woman, on her way from the line 
of cots, had not sensed their plight. They needed some- 
thing to sit on, that was what was the matter, and not an- 
other soul had thought of it! With a single word of ap- 
peal, the Red Cross women and those of the Voluntary Aid 
Detachment of St. John's Ambulance Brigade (they were 
known as the V. A. D., a series of letters as familiar in 
England as A. R. C. or G. H. Q. or W. A. A. C. or any 
of the countless others which war-talk used instead of the 
full title) who were helping with the cot cases, gathered 
planks and boxes and barrels from the pier and within ten 
minutes had fashioned seats for all who wanted them. 

Until late in the afternoon the cots were swung up to 
the decks and when the last of them had been accounted 
for, then came a moment of unparalleled disappointment 
for those patient men on crutches who had waited so long. 
They were told that they could not be taken aboard the 
Saxonia; that their wounds and disabilities were such that 
they could not get into upper berths and no lower ones were 
available; that they must return to Dartford until a later 
time when provision for their transport could be arranged. 

The look of dismay, of bitter broken-heartedness that 
swept into the faces of those men is indescribable. It 
was a hard moment even for the Red Cross women to bear. 
The one, the foremost thing toward which each man had 
turned his eyes, Christmas at home, was, with a single 
order, struck from his vision. It is not strange that tears 
came to many of them, for they were already weak and 
tired out. The Red Cross women did what they could, 
but it was vain, just at first, to beguile their acute, wretched 



100 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

disappointment. The men themselves, the ones stouter of 
heart, were those who did most to trick their fellows out 
of their unhappiness. They accomplished it with the best 
of all devices at such -a time, a jest. How they managed 
to laugh is inconceivable, but they did it. Men who had 
not written to say they would be home for Christmas were 
the ones to start it, and they made heroic use of their 
negligence. One youngster on two crutches cried, " See, 
you guys, it doesn't pay to write home sometimes, no 
matter what they tell you. A lot of you fellows have gone 
and told your folks or your best girls that you'd be with 
them this Christmas. Now see where that's got you ! If 
you'd been lazy like me you wouldn't have said a word, 
and then you'd be the only one disappointed, and you're 
old enough and ugly enough to stand that, I guess. Take 
it from me, keep off that letter stuff ! " 

And just as he finished, one of the men whose leg was 
gone at the hip, turned to a Red Cross woman and whis- 
pered behind his hand, " That boy's just kidding. I saw 
him writing to his mother all about Christmas less than 
a month ago. He even told me what he'd asked her to 
have for dinner. He's some kidder ! " 

Another stalwart soul bent the joke backward upon him- 
self. The little crowd was standing, swaying uncertainly 
when he piped up. " Well, boys," he cried, " I've seen 
the London docks, and that's something, 'cause I never 
expected to see them. They're not much to look at and 
they don't get any better by looking at them any longer, 
so let's go, there's the train ! " 

It was a silent, miserable line that stumped off to the 
waiting cars, the same that had brought them to Tilbury 
several hours before. Some had been too outspoken in 
their resignation to be convincing, others were still past 
hiding the tears in their eyes. They clambered awkwardly 
up the step and either strangely or naturally, as you will, 
crowded to the windows which looked across to the trans- 
port which would leave them behind. Although it was 



ALONG THE L. 0. C. 101 

winter, the windows were opened and just as the train 
drew away a voice sang out, " Now, all together, three 
cheers for the fellows going home ! " 

Perhaps the roaring answer reached the Saxonia, per- 
haps not, hut let's hope it did, for there was not a man 
in the train who failed to respond. Car after car took 
up the cry of farewell until the ship had passed from 
sight. A Eed Cross woman went hack to Dartford on this 
train in an effort to keep the sparks of cheerfulness alive, 
but these were cold and dead when the party reached the 
hospital at nine o'clock that night. Fortunately these un- 
happy men had only a little while to wait as within two 
weeks they were put aboard the Mauretania which reached 
America just a few days behind the slower Saxonia. And 
the Saxonia herself, expected to arrive in New York on 
December 24th, did not reach port until two days later. 
But the Red Cross had prepared for a possible delay, the 
Canteen Service placing aboard the ship a large Christmas 
tree with a boxful of the usual trinkets for its decoration 
and provided for each of the men a Christmas stocking con- 
taining a package of cigarettes, a pair of socks, two hand- 
kerchiefs, a box of candy and a bag of nuts. These had 
been made ready by the Receiving and Distributing Serv- 
ice in George Street and represented only a small part of 
the 15,000 stockings which it filled and sent out in less 
than two weeks. 

There were many other sorts of canteen work organized 
in London in response to the emergencies constantly arising 
at this great center. Scarcely a week passed that did not 
bring its quota of men, wounded and others, passing 
through the city, for whom such provision was necessary. 
Numbers of these men could be and were met at the rail- 
way stations as their trains came in, the " Flying Squad- 
ron " always being ready with its " rolling canteens " 
to make a light-artillery dash into action at any hour day 
or night. But for the service of casual parties of soldier-s 
or sailors the Red Cross established a fully equipped can- 



102 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

teen in the Military Relief headquarters building at ISTo. 
52 Grosvenor Gardens, the home, too, of the " Flying 
Squadron." There a large reception room was set aside 
for the purpose and its patrons were both numerous and 
various. One day there would be parties of men on leave, 
or wounded men from the London hospitals or from Tot- 
tenham or Dartford, while on other occasions the guests 
might be returning prisoners of war or baseball teams of 
sailors or soldiers on their way back from matches in not 
distant camps. 

The wounded men, as well as the others who " just 
dropped in," always had a happy time at No. 52. There 
was a piano for them to bang on and invite the inevitable 
song; furthermore, they could fill themselves with coffee, 
doughnuts, and chocolate and smoke all they wished of the 
cigarettes they most preferred. It was an eye-opener, this 
warm, comfortable canteen in the heart of London. When 
one party belonging to the 27th and 30th American divi- 
sions which had been brigaded with the British, came 
to ]No. 52, a soldier insisted upon sitting off in a corner by 
himself. He stared about him with all-devouring eyes. 
A canteen worker, fearing that bashfulness might have 
caused him to be overlooked, asked if he wished a cup of 
coffee, a bun, or something else. He looked up slowly 
and replied, " Please don't ask me anything. Don't say a 
word to me, sister ! I'm in Paradise ! " His glance again 
swept round the room. " Heat, electric lights, American 
women talking — Good Lord, Miss, you don't know what 
all this means to me. I've been eight months over there 
at the front — eight months ! " 

Sightseeing trips about London in comfortable con- 
veyances were always arranged by the Red Cross for all 
the parties that came to 52. Visits were made to S.t. 
Paul's, the Abbey, Whitehall, the Parliament Buildings, 
Buckingham Palace, the Tower, 10 Downing Street, and 
many other places in a long and interesting itinerary. This 
journey consumed about five hours, after which the 



ALONG THE L. 0. C. 103 

wounded would be taken back to their hospitals or trains 
and the others started on their way to the camps from 
which they had come. Usually they went away with their 
pockets bulging with oranges, chocolate, cigarettes and bis- 
cuits. 

Returning war prisoners were always met at the rail- 
way stations and conveyed in chartered busses to the haven 
of 52. Twenty of them came in at Waterloo station one 
day. They had been prisoners at Stargard for nearly six 
months and the wounded among them were in a much de- 
pressed state through lack of care of their injuries. These, 
they said, had been dressed carelessly with paper bandages 
by the German surgeons, and none too often; medicines 
had been lacking for them in the prison camp ; and but for 
British medical officers in the camp they would have fared 
much worse. When they reached 52 they were treated to 
the luxury of a warm bath and plied with food until they 
could hold no more, after which they went for the trip 
about the city. As they had arrived in England in a 
conglomeration of French, Belgian and British uniforms, 
with scarcely a remnant of their own remaining, the Red 
Cross provided them with an American outfit. While they 
were at 52, any cablegrams they wished sent home, were 
forwarded at once, gratis, by the Red Cross and when din- 
ner time came round they were taken to the soldiers' mess 
at army headquarters across the way. By this time they 
had " bucked up " remarkably well, so much so, indeed, 
that when one of the Red Cross women offered to help a 
wounded man with his food; he replied, " Oh, no, Miss, 
youVe done a lot for me already and you must be tired. 
Please go sit down, my pal here will help me all I need." 

Special canteens for these weary returning men were 
established at Dover, Ripon, Hull, and Leith, and it was 
by way of Hull that the first Ajnerican war prisoners 
reached England. They arrived at the end of November 
and there were only eight in this distinguished party: 
Corporals Lee H. Whitehead, of Jeffrey, Ky. ; Jack Bath- 



104 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

gate, of ISTew Haven, Conn. ; Leroy E. Congleton, of Phil- 
adelphia, Pa. ; and Thomas Barry, of New Haven, Conn., 
and Privates James Pitochelli, of Providence, R. I. ; Wil- 
liam B. O'Sullivan, of Bristol, Conn. ; Frank Butler, of 
New Haven, and William Lilly, of Southington, Conn. 
When they arrived they were met by Lieut. Alexander Hol- 
land, of the Red Cross, who took them first to the repatria- 
tion camp at Ripon and then brought them to London and, 
of course, to 52, where they were entertained before going 
on to Winchester* Most of them were in British uniforms, 
so the Red Cross refitted them completely. The entire 
party was in excellent health and spirits. 

" We owe it chiefly to the food packages and good under- 
clothing the Red Cross sent us from Switzerland," said 
Bathgate, exhibiting a piece of German, black bread about 
two inches square as evidence of their prison camp rations. 
" This and a bowl of soup which was more like muddy 
water, were about all we got from the Germans for our 
every-day meals. If it had not been for the Red Cross 
food we. wouldn't be looking so well — we mightn't be here 
at all." 

The eight were taken prisoners with 180 other Ameri- 
cans at Siecheprey, where the Germans made a surprise at- 
tack in overwhelming numbers on a small American de- 
tachment. They became separated from the other prison- 
ers and found themselves first at a Darmstadt camp, then at 
Limburg and finally at Apladem in the Rhine district, 
where they were assigned to a working party shifting 
freight cars. They were at Apladem when the Armistice 
was signed and two or three days later were placed in a 
train for Holland, sailing, with a large party of British 
prisoners, from Rotterdam. 

" We got an intimation about an armistice on November 
8th," said Barry, " but it turned out to be a. false alarm. 
Later on, in the afternoon of Monday, November 11th, 
there was a curious unrest among the guards about the 
camp, and pretty soon a party of German marines ap- 



ALONG THE L. 0. C. 105 

peared and began smashing things np. A German private 
told us the war was over, but we didn't know whether 
to believe him or not. There was a lot of noise in the 
town of Apladem and the next thing we knew, a gang of 
these marines came round again, tearing rank badges off 
the German officers and snapping fingers in their faces. 
When the officers didn't show any sign of fight we knew 
the war must be over sure enough. We didn't want to 
let them see us jubilating just then, but after a while, 
when the guards got to running about the camp and not 
paying any attention at all to us, we let every one know 
just how glad we were over it." 

Ripon, a British camp, was the most important clear- 
ing station in England for American war prisoners. All 
who came by way of either Copenhagen or Rotterdam and 
landed at Hull, Newcastle, or Leith, save hospital cases, 
were taken there at once, so it was made a Red Cross out- 
post canteen. Lieutenant Holland, in charge of it, had 
quarters in an old camp guardhouse in which he also kept 
a generous store of underclothing and comfort necessities 
and, later, a stock of uniforms, because the Americans were 
usually clad in British tunics and not infrequently in Ger- 
man prison dress of black with broad yellow stripes on back 
and trousers and black and yellow cap. Prisoners gen- 
erally arrived between 4 o'clock in the afternoon and 4 
o'clock in the morning, but no matter what the hour might 
be, all, Americans and British alike, were first interrogated 
by a Royal Commission of attorneys as to their personal 
knowledge of atrocities committed by the Germans. In 
case their statements warranted it, they were requested 
to make affidavits, duly drawn and signed. After that the 
Americans were released into Lieutenant Holland's hands. 
He, too, had a routine for them, and one of inestimable 
value. He went over with every man the entire " List 
of the Missing " prepared at army headquarters, to learn 
if he knew anything of the fate of any man therein. In 
this way he was enabled to discover something definite in 



106 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

the cases of 150 American soldiers whose records had, up 
to that time, ended with the ominous word " missing." 
Some of the war prisoners had been beside " missing " 
men when they were killed, or had seen them buried by 
exploding shells; some were even positive that " missing " 
men had been taken prisoners and were too badly wounded 
to have given an account of themselves. Every one of the 
Americans had his story to tell of hardship, and, while 
these differed in several ways, there was one point of com- 
mon agreement: that they would have starved in the Ger- 
man prison camps without the packages the American Red 
Cross sent in from Berne, and not a few added that they 
never received a Red Cross box from which something 
had not been stolen before it reached them. One man told 
Lieutenant Holland that he had been captured in No- 
vember, 1917, and taken to Berlin where, with others, 
he was paraded through the streets under a heavy guard 
which, however, did not prevent the German women from 
spitting on the Ajnerican soldiers as they passed. This 
man drove a motor lorry in Berlin for the German Gov- 
ernment until the signing of the Armistice. A few of the 
Americans, the prisoners said, had to work in ammunition 
dumps just back of the German lines and under shell fire 
of their own guns. There were -also frequent complaints 
of the treatment they had received in German hospitals, 
and one prisoner, whose leg had been broken by shrapnel, 
said that the German doctors gave him little or no care. 
About once a week, he explained, a doctor would unwrap 
the dirty bandages about his leg, look at the wound, throw 
the bandages back upon his leg in a mass and walk out of 
the ward. 

In addition to providing these men with clothing and 
such things, Lieutenant Holland gave them ten shillings 
apiece as a loan from the Red Cross, the receipts being 
sent to the regimental paymaster. For those who wished 
it, cablegrams telling their people of their safe deliver- 
ance from German hands were sent by the Red Cross. At 



ALONG THE L. O. C. 107 

9 o'clock in the morning after their arrival at Ripon, they 
left for London, to go to No. 52 and see the welcome 
sights of the city under Red Cross auspices until it was 
time for them to be on their way to Winchester. The 
Ripon service was maintained from November until the 
close of the first week of February, and in that time 280 
soldiers and 14 officers passed through Lieutenant Hol- 
land's office and were aided in more than one way. 

The army knew how well the Red Cross would care for 
these homing prisoners for, in one instance, a squad of 
eight of them arrived at Winchester with no papers, no 
idea where to go beyond following the verbal instructions 
they had received to " report to the American Red Cross." 
So it found rooms for the night for them at a local hotel 
and next morning, after a hot bath and a good breakfast, 
they were transferred to the military authorities at the 
Morn Hill Rest Camp. 

Red Cross work at Dover dated from October, 1918, at 
which time wounded were beginning to come through the 
port in large numbers from the divisions brigaded with the 
British on the Flanders front. Hitherto, these wounded 
had mainly come through Southampton, where a canteen 
service was also in operation. An office was established on 
the Admiralty Pier and arrangements made with the Brit- 
ish naval authorities for one American Red Cross woman 
worker to go on the pier as Assistant Reception Officer. 
This worker was constantly on hand as the stretchers were 
brought from the hospital transports and the Americans 
separated from the British wounded. She talked with 
the Americans, distributed comforts of various kinds and 
assisted the medical debarkation officer in the task of as- 
signing them to various American or British hospitals 
under advices from the office of the Chief Surgeon of the 
Army in London. The wounded were always anxious to 
learn to what hospital they were to go and asked all sorts 
of questions concerning the men already there and the 
identity of the medical unit in charge. There was every 



108 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

token of the appreciation that these men felt at being met 
by the Red Cross, particularly by a woman. " This is 
the best medicine yet," was a frequent comment from the 
men who had, perhaps, not seen an American woman for 
months. " From the point of view of morale, this work 
is very important," wrote an American officer of the army 
whose duties brought him constantly into contact with the 
work of debarkation at Dover, and he added, " It is pleasant 
to see the work of our American Red Cross beginning right 
here at the pier as soon as our wounded reach England, and 
continued all the way through their hospital career. The 
mental stimulus of this work at the docks is always notice- 
able." 

Frequently as many as eight hospital transports would 
come to Dover in a single day and the American Red Cross 
was on hand to meet them all, not only to attend to its own 
men but also to lend such aid as it could to the men of its 
ally.. It also cared for the Americans at two near-by fly- 
ing camps and there was occasional hospital visiting to be 
done. The Emergency Bureau had a station there with 
supplies, as Dover was an important " listening post " for 
news of torpedoings or other marine disasters. After the 
signing of the Armistice this port became the gateway for 
many returning American prisoners who had been in Ger- 
man camps for months and were more than verbally ap- 
preciative of the care and attention they received when 
their ships came in. 

There was always a great amount of work for the Red 
Cross in the Winchester area, for it was the chief American 
military zone in Great Britain. Large offices were main- 
tained in the city itself with branches at Portsmouth, Ames- 
bury, Morn Hill, Romsey, and Hursley, in each of which 
were large hospitals and great numbers of troops in transit. 
The canteen service had stations at Romsey, Codford, and 
Portsmouth, with an " Exchange " also at the base hospital 
at the latter place. Camp service was active at about 



ALONG THE L. 0. C. 109 

fifteen different points, including the great American tank 
camps at Wareham, the American construction camps at 
Chattis Hill and Lopcombe Corner, and aviation camps at 
Andover, Boscombe Down, Elowerdown, Lake Down, 
Netherhaven, Old Sarum, Stonehenge, Upavon, Yatesbury, 
and Worthy Down. There were large rest camps at Morn 
Hill, Romsey, Codford, and Standon. The Emergency 
Relief Bureau had stations at Winchester, Weymouth and 
Portsmouth. Hospital service was active at Winchester, 
Hursley, Romsey, Portsmouth, Codford, Chattis Hill, 
Highcliffe and Chichester. Red Cross camp infirmaries 
were established at Boscombe Down, Old Sarum, Yates- 
bury, Lake Down and Emsworth. Work in behalf of 
American nurses was maintained at Winchester, Ports- 
mouth, Romsey and Hursley. 

The foregoing is cited as sufficient proof, certainly, of 
the magnitude of what the Red Cross had to do in one area 
alone. Its scope of service was all-embracing, unlimited, 
ranging from helping a casual soldier to get married to 
building and equipping an entire hospital. " The Ameri- 
can Red Cross has been the Eairy Godmother of the army," 
is what an officer wrote from one of the Winchester camps. 
Red Cross work was begun at Winchester in February, 
1918, its first offices, which it soon outgrew, being in an 
ancient dwelling designed by Sir Christopher Wren for 
King James II. During the course of the year 1918, the 
staff dealt with many emergencies in which quick thinking 
and rapid action were necessary. During the first stages 
of the influenza epidemic, when patients were being brought 
daily into all the available hospitals, accommodations were 
soon swamped and the Red Cross shared with the medical 
authorities of the army the task of providing extra beds, 
pneumonia jackets and equipment of all kinds for the sick 
men. At one period the Supply Department of the Red 
Cross at Winchester was called upon to furnish 14,500 fresh 
eggs weekly over a term of several weeks and in the face of 



110 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

a long-standing shortage in the markets, was able to find 
them and put them in the hospitals where there was such 
great need for them. 

Early in September, when the troopship Persic was tor- 
pedoed off the southwest coast of England, the Winchester 
office was notified at noon of that day that 1,900 men from 
the ship would arrive early in the evening in destitute con- 
dition. It did not daunt the Eed Cross for an instant ; it 
was emergencies like this that proved it, so a large quantity 
of clothing and personal comforts were drawn from the 
well-filled storehouses and so arranged for distribution that 
the castaways were fitted out as soon as they reached camp. 

The Winchester office was constantly called upon to assist 
soldiers financially, because, owing to the system used by 
the army pay department, a soldier who had become sepa- 
rated from his- organization might find himself unable to 
draw any pay whatsoever until he should rejoin his par- 
ticular unit. Under some conditions the army could make 
partial payment, not, however, exceeding $7.50. But in 
all such cases the Red Cross was ready and willing, both 
at Winchester and at every other Eed Cross post through- 
out the British Isles, to " come to the front " on request, 
usually, of the personnel officer at Army Headquarters, 
whose approval was a sufficient voucher for the genuineness 
of the need. All such advances were purely loans, and in 
each case the soldier signed an agreement to refund the 
amount as soon as he got his pay. On some occasions, 
when funds were needed in American camps for special 
purposes not provided for in army appropriations, the Bed 
Cross was able to lend a hand. On Memorial Day it dec- 
orated the graves of all who had been interred in the Ameri- 
can cemetery at Morn Hill, more than 500 in all. And the 
camp celebrations of the Eourth of July would not have 
been quite complete had not the Bed Cross helped out with 
prizes for the winners of the sports events and furnished 
transportation for convalescent soldiers to the scenes of the 
celebrations. On Thanksgiving Day it was the Bed Cross 




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ALONG THE L. 0. C. Ill 

which furnished the turkeys for every hospital in the Win- 
chester area. 

Five Red Cross dental officers were assigned to this zone 
and did a great deal of appreciated work. And, of course, 
there was a canteen service which met every train and be- 
tween whiles visited the hospitals throughout the district to 
distribute comforts and cheerfulness. 

The smaller American camps in the Winchester area, oc- 
cupied by training and repair squadrons of the air force, 
were in the open country of Salisbury Plain and here the 
first work of the Red Cross was the establishment and 
equipment of camp dispensaries and infirmaries to obviate 
the necessity of sending sick or injured men miles away in 
British motor lorries to the nearest hospitals, which, by the 
way, were British. So these institutions were set up in 
marquee tents, two to a post, to be replaced by portable 
wooden huts each twenty-five by fifty feet in size for win- 
ter use, but these had been installed in only two camps 
when the Armistice brought further effort to an end. As 
long hours of manual labor in isolated places, with the ex- 
citement of warfare lacking, seemed likely to bring about 
discontent and consequent inefficiency, the Red Cross de- 
voted much attention to supplying recreation and amuse- 
ment to the squadrons. In every camp, tents or barrack 
huts were erected and fitted with pianos, gramophones, 
games, newspapers and magazines; orchestras were organ- 
ized, with instruments given by the Red Cross; dances 
were given in the nearest towns and interest in baseball 
was stimulated by the provision of uniforms and equipment 
and the arrangement of inter-camp matches. For the 
comfort of the men, the Red Cross had eighty-one different 
articles, from sweaters to razor-blades, in its storehouses 
and these were distributed by the thousand at the posts. 

" You have filled our coffers with all the needed articles 
for comfort and health," wrote the commanding officer of 
the Yatesbury Camp. " You have given us an American 
flag to float over our camp and a bugle to awaken our boys 



112 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

to the chilly blasts of Yatesbury. Please accept our thanks 
for these many favors and rest assured that it is our inten- 
tion to call upon you freely for anything we need, knowing 
that we will not be denied." 

Flower down Camp was taken over by the American 
Army as an aero-squadron rest camp in May, 1918, and the 
initial request made of the Red Cross here was the pro- 
vision of bathing facilities for the men. A large building 
was completed in about a month, serving both enlisted men 
and officers and nothing in the camp was more appreciated. 
While the construction of the bath house was under way, 
the Red Cross also transformed a dilapidated barracks into 
a clean and attractive recreation center and mess for the 
officers. Similar rooms were equipped for the men and 
there was not a happier camp on the Plain. A band was 
provided with instruments and concerts were given every 
night, whether a man liked music or not, and after four 
months' occupation Plowerdown was evacuated, but men 
from there have given the assurance that the band had noth- 
ing to do with it. 

Red Cross work among the other camps of the zone was 
of like character and was constant from the beginning of 
their occupancy until the last man was out and on his way 
home. 

In that time not less than 600,000 American soldiers 
passed through the Winchester area. The supplies, medi- 
cal, personal, and foodstuffs, furnished them by the Red 
Cross were measurable in thousands of tons. Among the 
comfort articles distributed may be noted (for those who 
like figures) 20,000 towels, 30,000 tubes of tooth paste, 
10,000 shaving brushes, 9,000 pairs of socks, 9,000 " com- 
fort bags," 9,000 handkerchiefs, 8,500 sweaters, 7,500 
razors, 8,000 cakes of soap, 95,000 packages of chocolate, 
2,500,000 cigarettes, 40,000 packages of tobacco, and 6,000 
pipes. 



CHAPTEE YI 

WHERE A MILLION" MEN" WENT BY 

IT was in the south of England that American military 
activity was concentrated as nowhere else in Great 
Britain. It was practically centered there. When mili- 
tary exigence necessitated the passage of a gigantic Ameri- 
can Army through England it was in the south that it estab- 
lished most of its camps and the largest of them, eighteen in 
all. There, too, was undertaken its most extensive hos- 
pitalization. Although the American troopships poured 
their legions into Liverpool and Glasgow in the north, as 
well as into London, Plymouth and Southampton, it was 
in the south that they were massed — a million men were 
encamped there at various times during 1918 — and from 
the south that they flowed out again toward Erance and 
the battle front. From Southampton alone', more than 
913,000 American soldiers embarked for the voyage across 
the Channel. 

Thus it was expedient, for reasons of concentration and 
transport, that the south should be selected by the Ameri- 
can military authorities for the mobilization of their forces. 
The less rigorous climate of that section was, also, best 
suited for base hospital purposes. And, as an added ad- 
vantage there were wide camp spaces in that part of Eng- 
land which had already been used by the British and were 
available for American occupation. 

This zone of chief activity naturally included Southamp- 
ton and, embracing the regions lying all about it, comprised 
practically all the territories of the counties of Berkshire, 
Wiltshire, Hampshire, Somerset, Devon and Dorset, even 
to far Cornwall. It took in historic Salisbury Plain on 
which " Kitchener's Army " was gathered and trained in 

113 



114 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

the early years of the war and where, in time, were located 
not less than ten supplemental American camps for aero 
schooling and repair squadrons. 

In this great area lay the first camp to be taken over from 
the British by the American Army. It was on the broad 
rolling elevation of Morn Hill — Winnal Downs, the 
British called it — about two miles from the famed cathe- 
dral city of Winchester. It passed into American control 
in November, 1917, and from that moment became the most 
important camp on the United States Army map of Great 
Britain. Three quarters of the total number of American 
soldiers who were landed in England passed through Morn 
Hill. And Winchester, only two miles away in this his- 
toric instance, became the center for the American Expedi- 
tionary Eorces on their way to Erance. 

There was a singular fitness in the chance that made 
Winchester a focal point. Erom the earliest days of re- 
corded history it had possessed military importance. It 
was the seat of government for the Britons, the Celts, the 
Bomans, the Saxons, the Danes and the Normans. For 
centuries it was the capital city of Britain and even after 
London became the capital in the thirteenth century, it was 
still a popular place of residence of many of the English 
Kings. Charles the Second and his dissolute court held 
revels there, the dwelling place of Nell Gwynne, con- 
veniently located for her royal patron, being still in exist- 
ence. The cathedral of Winchester, dating back to the 
year 640, is held to be one of the finest in the British Isles 
and there are laid the remains of King Alfred and many 
other Saxon Kings and also of humbler Izaak Walton. At 
the opening of the war it was a garrison city and the camps 
the British built about it in 1914 were on land which had 
been leased for ten years by Lord Kitchener. These were 
the convenient and already laid-out areas which the British 
authorities gave over to the American Army. 

The buildings at Morn Hill, and in the other camps 
similarly acquired, were mostly of steel framework covered 



WHERE A MILLION MEN WENT BY 115 

with corrugated iron. To supplement them, hutments of 
wood and large encampments of tents were constructed and 
hospitals, banks, telegraph offices, bath houses, garages and 
repair shops were gradually installed by the American 
forces, which also set aside ample reservations for baseball, 
football and tennis. Normally the capacity of the camp 
was 7,500, but during the months in which American over- 
sea transportation reached its astounding maximum, it ac- 
commodated at times, not less than 12,000, so incessantly 
did the special trains arrive from the debarkation ports. 

To aid the American military authorities in their for- 
midable and ever-growing task, the Bed Cross had estab- 
lished bases at Southampton and Winchester, because the 
importance of this southern area to the Red Cross was as 
great as to the army. As soon as Morn Hill passed into 
American hands and Winchester became the headquarters 
of the Southern Army Command, an appeal was made to 
the Red Cross for its needed and welcomed assistance, with 
the result that every phase of Red Cross activity was under- 
taken, from fundamental hospital service to the work of 
numerous administration bureaus. 

Hospital service dealt with the men sent to the two sec- 
tions of Morn Hill Hospital which had a normal capacity 
of 600 patients although in cases of emergency this could 
be increased to about 800. The number of occupants, how- 
ever, varied with the general health of the camp, being as 
low sometimes as 100 and, at others, rising above 600 as 
during the influenza epidemic of the autumn of 1918 when 
670 beds were required. During the year a total of 5,424 
patients were attended, which exceeds the number of ad- 
mittances to any other American hospital in Great Britain. 
This hospital was repaired throughout by the Red Cross, 
the floors were covered with Red Cross linoleum and large 
quantities of hospital equipment came from the Red Cross 
warehouse, or were purchased by the Red Cross on request 
of the Commanding Officer. 

Both sections of the hospital were visited daily by the 



116 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

Red Cross supply officers and Home Communication officers 
and there was no hospital in Great Britain where the Red 
Cross was so accessible or so well equipped to respond to 
every appeal. The men's quarters of the hospital unit, the 
enlisted men's recreation rooms and the patients' dining 
room, were all either partly or wholly furnished and dec- 
orated by the Red Cross. A substantial brick building was 
erected and equipped for the use of the officers as club 
quarters, the rooms including a lounge large enough for en- 
tertainments and moving picture shows, three dining halls 
and various writing and recreation rooms. This building 
was always used on semi-public occasions when it was 
essential that a suitable place be found for the reception and 
entertainment of special guests. Recreation quarters were 
also furnished for the enlisted men and non-commissioned 
officers and several bands were outfitted for the entertain- 
ment of the troops. A large canteen station was completed 
towards the end of the year, but unfortunately, too late to 
be of great service to the troops. 

One of the Red Cross huts at Morn Hill became gen- 
erally known as " Bissell Hut " and the origin of the name 
is an interesting side-light on how closely the Red Cross 
worked with and for the army. Early in the year a casual 
detachment of American troops under a Lieutenant Bissell 
came into the camp. Lieutenant Bissell had seen the Red 
Cross at work in the cantonments in America and took a 
great interest in the work at Morn Hill. Largely through 
his initiative the Red Cross took over one of the army hut- 
ments and fitted it up as a club-room, installing easy chairs, 
pictures, writing tables, flags, a piano, gramophone and 
various other musical instruments. As soon as the hut was 
ready it was turned over to the men and treated as their 
property, the Red Cross exercising no further supervision 
except to replace needed articles of furniture and to see that 
any necessary supplies were provided. In this way, the 
men acquired a sense of ownership and looked upon it as 
their club, manifesting their possession by christening it, 



WHERE A MILLION MEN WENT BY 117 

with all formalities, the " Bissell Club," and the number of 
men who enjoyed its hospitality and knew it only under 
this name, runs into many thousands. 

A short time later, a similar club was installed on the 
other side of the Morn Hill camp, and still later a third 
self-governing institution was fitted out for the men of the 
Motor Transport Company, a fourth for the hospital per- 
sonnel, and a fifth for the Headquarters Staff orderlies. 
Through these huts the Red Cross came to represent 
" Home " to thousands of men, not only those merely pass- 
ing through Winchester but also those of the permanent 
staff stationed there. 

There was a great deal of day-to-day work in a camp -like 
Morn Hill, where thousands of new soldiers were constantly 
arriving and thousands of others being dispatched almost 
daily to France. Whether the troops were incoming or out- 
going, there were many things which they needed and the 
Red Cross supply office was always open and ready to re- 
spond to any request endorsed by the commanding officer 
of a detachment. In a single afternoon, for instance, more 
than 1,500 articles were distributed on requests of this 
kind, the articles varying from comfort kits to sweaters and 
woolen helmets. 

But the troops arriving at Winchester were not merely 
men fresh from America.. Many of them were " casuals," 
either on detached service or just discharged from British 
hospitals and sent there convalescent for a few days' rest 
until they could rejoin their units. In many cases the 
needs of these were manifold, and the Red Cross was fre- 
quently called upon to re-outfit them, almost from head to 
foot. 

The system adopted in supplying these soldiers was to 
have the non-co mm issioned officer in charge of each hut 
make out a list stating the requirements of the men under 
his care. This list was then sent to the Red Cross supply 
hut, the articles drawn and distributed, making it possible 
thus to avoid not only the issue of unnecessary articles, but 



118 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

to care thoroughly for the actual needs of the men. 

The medical hut for the " casual camp " was adjacent to 
the Red Cross supply hut, and it made constant requests 
for articles which could not be readily supplied from the 
quartermaster's stores, such as canes for crippled mem 
special bandages, special braces and slings and a number of 
things which the Red Cross could either obtain locally at 
Winchester, or secure promptly on telegraphic request from 
London. 

At one time, when the Casual Camp was crowded, there 
was a very heavy demand for sweaters. Unfortunately, 
the supply was very meager at the time and remained so 
for- a long period, therefore a special formula was adopted 
for the issue of these garments. All men who requested 
them were lined up at the supply hut ; then the Red Cross 
officer in charge would explain the situation, — that the 
supply was limited owing to the shortage of wool, and it 
was desired that, so far as possible, sweaters should be sup- 
plied only to convalescent men, or to those whose need was 
very great; if any man in the line thought he could do 
without a sweater he would be leaving it for a man fresh 
from hospital. It was most gratifying to see the number 
of men who would drop out of the line with a good-natured 
smile and a good-humored exclamation, " Well, I need it 
but not so badly as that ; let the other fellow have it ! " 

On April 1,1919, the U. S. Army formally evacuated this 
great camp which was returned to the service of British 
troops — all British, that is, save " The Clubmen of Morn 
Hill." 



CHAPTER VII 

THE INCOMING LEGIONS AT EIVEEPOOE 

THE story of the American Red Cross at Liverpool and 
in the regions of i mm ediate war-relationship, is the 
story of practically every activity which engaged this great 
organization in behalf of the American soldier in Great 
Britain. Here it constructed the first hospital to be built 
in the Kingdom for American troops — Mossley Hill. 
Here, the chief debarkation port in Britain, it met and 
ministered, in one way or another, to more than three- 
quarters of a million soldiers coming from the United 
States, as many as 20,000 in a single convoy. Here it fed 
them as they landed and bore the sick to hospital. Here 
it distributed thousands of tons of supplies — one of its 
warehouses alone held 3,000 tons of foodstuffs and in a 
second was stored an equal amount of other distributable 
commodities, including nearly 100 portable huts for hospi- 
tal emergency needs. Here, in one working day, it gave 
Red Cross cheer to more than forty thousand American 
troops on their way to the south of England. Here it 
rendered its service in hospital, camp and post, in club and 
recreation center and this to its widest capacity, extend- 
ing it even to Birmingham, Leicester and Derby for 
troops on their way to the south of England. Here it 
gathered the new-wed wives of the homing soldiers and 
sailors, shepherded them, even provided them with funds 
for the voyage to their new country. And here, too, it 
greeted and cared for the thousands of sick and wounded 
west-bound on the hospital ships. 

It may truthfully be said that the Red Cross never 
knew an idle hour in the Liverpool area. Its day often be- 
gan at 5 o'clock in the morning and lasted until two or three 

119 



120 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

hours after midnight and required the services of more than 
fifty workers. 

So tremendous and persistent was the inflow of American 
troops at Liverpool that, naturally, one of the most im- 
portant stations of the Red Cross was in the vicinity of the 
debarkation docks. But the business of meeting and can- 
teening a convoy was complicated by landing conditions at 
the port. The tides always play a large part in the dock- 
ing of ships at Liverpool, for there is a difference of twenty- 
three feet between high and low tide in the Mersey. Ships 
can cross the bar and come to berth only at certain hours 
and certain points. The various ships of an American con- 
voy, carrying from 8,000 to 20,000 troops, might land at 
any one of ten docks over a stretch of five miles, and there 
were three main railway stations at which they were en- 
trained for the south. Moreover, it was always necessary 
to be prepared for every sort of sudden alteration in train 
schedule. The 9 :30 train, for instance, might be trans- 
ferred without notice from the Central Station to the Ex- 
change Station; then, the canteen service assigned to that 
train, with its load of coffee, biscuits, chocolate and 
cigarettes, must be as abruptly shifted. Or, perhaps a 
message would come : " We are putting on an extra train 
at the Central/' when seventy gallons of extra coffee and 
all its accompaniments must be dispatched thither at this 
instant notice. The canteen service had also to be prepared 
for delays in train schedules, for advances in departure 
times, for even the complete abandonment of all schedules. 
It was impossible to know what the next minute might 
bring forth. 

Then, too, there was always something of emergency re- 
lief to be provided, for the transports never came in with- 
out bringing some kind of an " emergency " with them. 
But the Red Cross was able to take time by the forelock in 
such instances. Before a transport was permitted to dock 
it was required to pass inspection by the army medical or 
quarantine officers. The Red Cross arranged to have a car 



THE INCOMING LEGIONS AT LIVERPOOL 121 

at the service of the British medical officer charged with 
this duty and he was always accompanied aboard ship by 
one or more American Red Cross representatives who con- 
ferred at once with the commanding and medical officers of 
the ship to learn what kind of special aid was needed. In 
this way the Red Cross was frequently able to supply emer- 
gency relief for incoming transports without the slightest 
loss of time, to have it under way, in fact, within a moment 
after the Red Cross people came ashore, which was well 
in advance of the military debarkation. There was, 
fortunately, no such secrecy about arriving ships at Liver- 
pool as at Royal Albert and Tilbury Docks below London, 
so the Red Cross had time to make preparations. 

Troop convoys rarely exceeded 20,000 men, but the Red 
Cross was equipped to handle as many as 30,000. At five 
o'clock in the morning the Red Cross " coffee factory " and 
kitchen at Bootle, a suburb of Liverpool, was opened and 
the steaming beverage was ready to be loaded into the can- 
teen lorries at the rate of 360 gallons an hour. This 
would provide for 3,600 men in that space of time, the Eng- 
lish gallon, which is twenty-five per cent larger than the 
American measure, being used and 100 gallons being 
reckoned as sufficient for 1,000 soldiers. It was necessary 
to have the coffee not only hot — the insulated containers 
attended to that — but it must be, above all things, on time, 
for troops headed toward the battlefields of France were 
moved on a time-table which gave few spare moments, and 
very often the canteen service had to be wedged in between 
the entraining of the men and the departure of their trains. 
Sometimes this interval did not exceed five minutes, some- 
times it extended over nearly half an hour, but never more 
than that, so the number of men served depended, in part, 
upon the manual dexterity of the Red Cross workers and in 
part upon the time a soldier required to gulp a cup of piping 
coffee and consume a big, fat bun or a thick sandwich. 

The canteen equipment provided for the serving of coffee 
consisted of large, wheeled u tanks," each of which carried 



122 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

eighty gallons of the brew and also a large supply of cups, 
buns, sandwiches, chocolate and the like. To serve a troop- 
train of nineteen or twenty coaches providing a seating 
capacity of 760 men — five compartments to a coach with 
eight men in a compartment — required a force of not less 
than fifteen Red Cross workers. For a long period during 
the middle and latter part of the year 1918, the number of 
incoming ships averaged more than two a day and the num- 
ber of men thus served was about 4,000 a day. When a 
large convoy arrived, the entire staff of the Liverpool office 
was diverted directly to the work of the canteen depart- 
ment. 

For the distribution of food to men at the docks them- 
selves, the Eed Cross had a large " Riverside Station " 
where more than 2,000 gallons of coffee a day could be pre- 
pared and thousands of buns and sandwiches made ready 
for the hungry. The station got its name from the fact 
that its rear wall was the brick side of the Riverside Station 
of the London and Northwestern Railway, the remainder 
of it being a wooden structure, well lighted and decorated 
and dignified with a tall pole bearing the American flag 
to catch the eye of every soldier on an incoming troopship. 

The personnel of the Liverpool canteen service was 
unique, consisting of young and old, men and women, Eng- 
lish, French, Scotch, Irish as well as American, all work- 
ing together in perfect happiness and forming friendships 
which will outlive the war. Because England had been in 
the conflict for a long time and almost every man and 
woman in the country had many kinds of war work to do, 
the volunteers at the canteen were not the same every day ; 
they could give only a day or two a week to this task. But 
they worked with a will and tirelessly while they were at 
it. And nobody save a canteen worker who has been on 
duty at the Liverpool docks realizes how much coffee and 
" grub " a shipload of American soldiers can stow away 
when it is served on dry land after they have been at sea 
so many days, when it is served by the first Aanerican 



THE INCOMING LEGIONS AT LIVERPOOL 123 

woman they've seen for a fortnight, when it comes as a sort 
of " touch of home " in the midst of surroundings which 
are all strange and foreign. 

During the influenza epidemic the service was extended 
to include hot soups for all the arriving troops. Fre- 
quently the workers heated pans of " Mulligan stew " for 
baggage details and stretcher bearers, and it was not at all 
unusual to receive an emergency call at almost any hour, 
day or night, for supplies for 200 or 300 men at work in 
some remote corner of the vast docks. The canteening of 
homeward-bound convoys was a work requiring especial at- 
tention, for these men were served not only with coffee and 
food but with various garments, blankets, comfort kits, 
medicines and any other needful supplies. 

Eor first-aid use at the docks the Eed Cross established 
a small hospital hut with cots, chairs and a trained nurse 
in attendance. The front of this hut was fitted with long 
shelves which were used by the incoming troops as desks on 
which to write post cards, these being immediately mailed 
home by the Eed Cross. Though the latter was not 
officially designated to handle soldiers' mail, the canteen 
workers never failed to collect great numbers of letters and 
post cards from every arriving detachment. The post cards, 
for which there was a constant demand, were supplied by 
the Eed Cross. One of the most popular of these had its 
message already printed so that the soldier had merely to 
sign his name and write the address on the reverse side. 
These were sent off by thousands and read : 

Somewhere in England 
Well, here I am, safe and sound and feeling mighty fine. 
Hope this finds all of you the same. Will write a real letter 
the first chance I get. Best regards and lots of love to all. 

In haste 



Numbers of the men sent cablegrams home and these too 
the Eed Cross transmitted. The worker who supervised 



124: THE PASSING LEGIONS 

this happy job said that there was one message which would 
always remain in his memory. It was : 

Arrived safe. Cannot live without you. Will you marry me? 
Home for Christmas. 

" It was in September that the boy sent that," he ex- 
plained, " and I've often wondered whether the fellow 
really got home for Christmas, and whether the wedding 
occurred. Let's hope so. The girl knows, at any rate." 

One of the first steps toward making the newcomers feel 
at home, however short their stay in England, was the pres- 
entation to each of a copy of the " King's Message of Wel- 
come," distributed by British soldiers who worked side by 
side with the American Red Cross men. At the same time 
the latter placed in each train compartment a copy of the 
Red Cross Daily Bulletin, with its budget of home news, 
and a quantity of magazines and daily papers contributed 
for the purpose by the British Red Cross, the Liverpool 
Civic League, and the newspaper publishers of the city. 

The Liverpool canteen did not limit its service to Ameri- 
can troops, although they naturally came first, but fre- 
quently put itself at the disposal of Allied soldiers of many 
nationalities who, for some reason or other, were debarked 
or embarked at Liverpool. One emergency call shortly be- 
fore the Armistice was signed involved serving 2,000 Can- 
adians and 500 Australians. 

Now and then great hospital ships sailed away from the 
port for the States with hundreds of sick and wounded 
aboard, and these were well and carefully served by the 
Red Cross. And many times these days yielded their 
dramatic fragments. Here is one in the words of a canteen 
worker, Miss Willetta Hayden, of California, who did 
valiant service at Liverpool. 

" We have seen no less than six ships slip into the 
Mersey with boys of ours who have paid war a bitter price. 
And we have had the pleasure of extending our hospitality 
to the Canadians and the Australians, war-weary men who 



THE INCOMING LEGIONS AT LIVERPOOL 125 

showed by their tired faces how much longer they had 
served than we. But of all the ships there is one that 
stands out, the Leviathan, that greatest of the Kaiser's 
ships, which sailed on December 3rd, her ballroom shelter- 
ing the shattered bodies of the men who helped to win the 
war against him. It was a real Liverpool day ; gray skies 
and cold winds and the rain always drip-drip-dripping from 
the roof of the warehouse where we waited. Each canteen 
woman had about her a circle of those delightful fellows in 
blue known by such an ill-sounding name — i gobs.' After 
an endless wait the ambulances came. Immediately every 
worker was at her post. Never before have I heard such 
stillness. Even the birds that had been chattering all the 
afternoon over the grain-bags stopped their noises at the 
approach of the first stretcher. And those i gobs ' ! An 
American woman feels terribly helpless when she sees the 
tenderness with which an American sailor can give a cup 
of coffee to an American soldier on a stretcher. And dur- 
ing that afternoon we had one of those world-old dramas 
of brother meeting brother ; the sailor, still a strong, young 
chap and feeling something like a slacker as he bent over 
the stretcher of the soldier brother, whose blanket lay so 
pitifully flat below the line of the knee. Not one word 
from the soldier, only a glad smile, and from the sailor: 
i You wrote us all the time that you were safe doing cleri- 
cal work in southern France.' " 

On the outskirts of Liverpool was the great American 
rest camp, Knotty Ash, with accommodations for 15,000 
troops and an attached personnel of 1,800. Through this 
the soldiers were constantly flowing; they remained a few 
days after coming ashore then hastened away to Winchester 
and Southampton and so to France. Here were two huge 
Ked Cross warehouses in the very center of the camp, ready 
to supply any need. There was a camp hospital here, too, 
for the casual cases of sickness and accident which de- 
veloped among the constantly changing inhabitants of the 
reservation. At first this hospital was composed entirely 



126. THE PASSING LEGIONS 

of tents, but early in the summer the army began the con- 
struction of huts and at the time of the influenza epidemic 
the majority of the patients was comfortably housed under 
wooden roofs. The capacity of the institution grew from 
250 beds to 500 and during the latter months of the year 
was seldom without at least 400 patients. The Red Cross 
began work at the rest camp almost simultaneously with the 
army and among the articles it furnished were laboratory 
supplies, surgical instruments, drugs, refrigerators and 
musical instruments. Most of the motor transport for the 
hospital also came from the Red Cross, its donations being 
sixteen ambulances, three convertible trucks, four motor 
vans, a touring car and a side-car motorcycle, with sev- 
eral cases of motor parts for all the machines. The nurses' 
home at Knotty Ash and the medical officers' quarters were 
also equipped, as was the recreation hut. And not very 
far from this hospital was Mossley Hill, the institution 
which the Red Cross had so amazingly built when the army 
made its first appeal for hospitalization. 

So much has always been said and written about the 
amounts of things which the Red Cross has disbursed to 
hospitals, to soldiers and sailors oversea, that an occasional 
turn aside to the spirit of the work is frankly irresistible. 
And the writer, in all his talks with workers, in all the 
archives to which he has had access, has come upon nothing 
finer than this bit of reminiscence, disguised as a " canteen 
worker's report," by the same Miss Willetta Hayden, who 
served on the Liverpool docks, which relates the spirit of 
service, first at Knotty Ash and then at Mossley Hill : 

" All day and every day we served the never-ending line 
through the window of the canteen. In the afternoon 
coffee and some kind of biscuit or sandwich or cake were 
served and this was our social hour. Every one came and 
was ' treated ' free of charge and, in the ease of a big arm 
chair, every one loitered over his coffee and discussed the 
Peace Conference and the great battles and the relative 
values of marines and ' gobs ' and i doughboys,' and every 



THE INCOMING LEGIONS AT LIVERPOOL 127 

one wondered about sailings and if his name would be on 
the next list. 

" I wonder if any woman knows bow far ber home 
reaches into the world. I wonder if any mother can ap- 
preciate how well we know her by the glimpses of her life 
through the boy we met every day in the canteen, and how 
we enjoyed the letters that told of the new records for the 
gramophone, or the latest saying of her grandson, or how 
fine the old car looked in its new coat of paint that Dad 
so patiently and painfully put on it ' after hours ' 'and Sun- 
days. 

" In the evenings were the movies. Boys still nursing 
lame arms and sensitive shoulders sought the easy chairs 
near the fire; boys unable to walk were brought by their 
' buddies ' in wheel-chairs. Perched high on apple barrel 
or chocolate case, over their smoke-wreathed heads, we 
watched with them the favorite film stars. Often the 
butcher came in cap and apron and in the shadows at the 
edge of the screen delighted himself and his audience at the 
piano. It was unstudied to the last degree. I still hold 
a memory of one of America's favorites doing a mad gypsy 
dance to the dignified national air of France ! 

" How the little glimpses into the home-land cheered us ! 
A train pulling over the Kockies ; an ocean liner with the 
New York sky-line or the Goddess as a background — 
either was sufficient to call forth the wildest cheers. Such 
sport it was to ' kid J the pictures ! Screen heroes with 
whiskers never escaped being i ba-a-a-ed ' no matter what 
their dignity ; the arrival of any animal on the screen was 
always greeted with loud and various interpretations of its 
peculiar vocal utterances. If the operator delayed too long 
or not long enough, vigorous boyish voices called forth 
merry criticism until he mended his ways. 

" Then one day the long awaited list came. Practically 
every name was on it, many of the boys to go home, some to 
go disappointedly to France and a few to stay in England in 
another hospital. For a few days there was a great buzzing 



128 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

of boys getting ready to sail. Judging from the shoe- 
strings and shoe polish we gave out, I should say it was a 
well-shod group of young Americans who left this side of 
the Atlantic. Next came the day. Ambulances with the 
stretcher cases, trucks fairly alive with waving arms, trucks 
piled high with blanket rolls dropped one after another 
over the green hill and disappeared along the highway. 
Very glad and happy they were, those boys, and very happy 
we to see them start on the long-desired journey, but feel- 
ing just a little forlorn with it all as though some of our 
own family had slipped away. And then we too, with what 
remained of our stores, were packed into gray American 
trucks and taken to another American hospital. 

" It was rather staggering to try and evolve a system of 
work for a world where two days were never the same and 
where nothing ever happened a second timo. The plan was 
to find out on one day the things needed and to get them 
from the warehouse and deliver them to the boys the next 
day, at the same time finding out what was still needed. 
But when a boy feels that he can get into a wheel chair to- 
day for the first time in months, no human being could say 
to him, ' I have no dressing gown and slippers for you to- 
day, but I'll get them for you to-morrow.' I throw system 
to the winds and run madly for the dressing gown and 
slippers. Or, when a boy comes in breathless for a pair of 
socks because he's ( going to be inspected in a few minutes ' 
— well, the socks appear without another word. 

" It takes an infinite amount of time to go from bed to 
bed, get the boy's name and an idea of what he needs, 
listening to his story of just how he 'got his,' listening 
with unfeigned interest to the tales of the Front and of his 
plans for the future, persuading the proud or timid boy 
that he is not a charity patient but is getting only what he 
himself or his father or mother put into our hands to deliver 
to him when he needed it, persuading the greedy boy that 
the fact of his aunt having given a Plymouth Rock hen to 
be raffled at the Red Cross bazaar at Bingville doesn't en- 



THE INCOMING LEGIONS AT LIVERPOOL 129 

title him to ten safety razors > three all-wool sweaters and a 
bathrobe that will become his peculiar style and coloring, 
trying to understand the Italian-American who cannot 
order anything but soap without an interpreter, but who 
always smiles and salutes with such dignity that I feel like 
a generalissimo, smiling over the foot of beds where 
blankets flatten out from the knee line downward or rise 
painfully high over plaster casts, getting orders from every- 
where and taking the list to the warehouse over half a mile 
of roadway that is never dry and seeing that the supplies 
are delivered by trucks that are always overworked. 

" Then, piling baskets high with clothing or fruit or 
cigarettes and taking them to the huts or carrying them 
miles along the corridors, delivering the things, or try- 
ing to find the boy who asked for this or that, but who has 
been transferred to another ward. It is so endless ! But 
it is such a fine thing for a nation to do. It's a fine privi- 
lege for a woman to have, to put into the hands of a man 
who has given as much as he could give, the things that will 
make him comfortable while he is in hospital. It's a fine 
spirit of humanity, a true brotherly love that considers no 
nationality but gives to all alike the comforts they need. 

" Days just before sailing are such wonderful days ! 
There are so many things that must be done, so many that 
cannot be done until the very last minute, such mountains 
of baggage to be sorted and tagged and transferred by the 
orderlies from the wards to the ambulances, such endless 
lines of stretchers, so many crutches and canes, and always 
the gay little cretonne comfort bags against the drab of the 
khaki. 

" Always there is the feeling of fine pride in our hearts 
that our Nation so considers her sick and wounded soldiers ; 
always there is a little anxious feeling that things may not 
be just as the boys left them in homes from which they have 
not heard for months ; and always the little feeling of regret 
that we shall see them no more, as when some friend has 
gone away. For we grow very close together here in this 



130 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

life of ours. There is an honest pain in my heart when I 
am writing down a long list of things that Brown wants 
for his trip across the Atlantic and I look into his eyes and 
know what he has not yet even suspected — that Brown is 
going on a much greater adventure than crossing the Atlan- 
tic, an adventure into a Ear Country for which he is fully 
equipped. And one morning, when I find a German hel- 
met and an old violin on Brown's empty bed, and the nurse 
tells me with a sad little smile that it's going to be an awful 
task but she's promised Brown that his mother shall have 
all his treasures and that she's going to see it through, some- 
how or other, it isn't Brown who's gone out of my life — 
it's one of my friends., 

" But only a few have slipped away and left me sad. 
Such pure fun as I get from most of these boys ! I never 
hope to be better entertained than I was by a slender youth 
with a great glass button which really came out of a birth- 
day cake but which he had just convinced a too credulous 
nurse was on a bodice of Queen Elizabeth's. The button 
held firmly in his eye and a fire poker for a swagger-stick, 
he gave an illustration of a Yank soldier he saw in the 
Strand worrying a ' Bobbie ' by talking British English to 
him. I never hope to be more fascinated than I have been 
by the tales of adventure Bufus told me. Eor Kufus had 
been a simply, carefully reared boy working in the cotton 
mills of a Southern State and living the round of life of the 
average country-town boy. Then he wanted to be a soldier 
and in no time he was one, with a machine gun on the Hin- 
denburg Line, living a thousand years in a few weeks, 
knowing nothing of time, caring nothing for life, seeing 
death in its most terrible aspects, having impressions 
burned into a very young and utterly inexperienced mind. 
Of course he left me a bragging, boasting Yank, but in the 
first days, when days were very long for a broken body and 
a mind that could think only of the terrors of war, when a 
heart was sick for home, then I found the simple recital 



THE INCOMING LEGIONS AT LIVERPOOL 131 

of war stories in a soft. Southern voice to give me the most 
fascinating hours of a busy day. 

" On the afternoons of our dance nights there is the mak- 
ing of sandwiches, tons of sandwiches ; going into steaming 
kitchens and finding a most accommodating mess sergeant 
to furnish us bread and margarine and a K.P. who will cut 
loaf after loaf for us, spreading ( margie ' and cheese and 
salmon for hours in storerooms that are almost at freezing 
point; then serving those sandwiches at night with cocoa 
to a crowd of dancers that are never all served and never 
could be all served. 

" It was a wise Solomon who discovered the root of all 
evil. Money matters are the most maddening. I always 
have my pockets filled with the money of some boy who is 
afraid to keep his own and my pocketbook is usually occu- 
pied by an I.O.U. from a soldier ' out of luck,' in spite 
of my protests that his word suffices. Always I am receiv- 
ing queer little notes with a few shillings inclosed from 
some boy who has left camp and failed to find me before he 
had to go." 

The Bed Cross gave camp service also to the British hos- 
pitals in Manchester, Chester, Birmingham and Wallasey, 
where American soldiers were under treatment. Bed 
Cross infirmaries were instituted in the American camps at 
Hooton Park, Shotwick and Shawbury. And such was the 
renown of the " Plying Squadron " attached to London 
headquarters that a duplicate of it was organized for the 
Liverpool area. The Bed Cross also supplied fine clubs 
for nurses at Mossley Hill and Knotty Ash and to supple- 
ment them, rooms were rented in Liverpool and furnished 
as a city club for nurses either attached to the hospitals or 
passing through the city to other posts. In the same way, 
a rest room was furnished for the women employed in the 
army quartermaster's department and one for the military 
transport service. 



132 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

The Naval Department of the Liverpool office was 
charged with caring for the crews of American destroyers 
which put into the port from time to time or made their 
headquarters there and thus considerable quantities of sur- 
gical instruments and appliances, blankets and comforts of 
various kinds were furnished to the navy. 

Thanksgiving Day was one to be remembered in the 
Liverpool district. The Eed Cross bought 14,000 pounds 
of turkey and 14,000 oranges with a sufficient amount of 
peas, potatoes, cauliflower, mince pie, white bread, butter 
and candy to make a feast for every American in every hos- 
pital, camp and post in the zone. The dinner, however, 
was only a part of the celebration of that day. A few hours 
thereafter Lord Eitchie and Lady Ritchie, the Mayor of 
Liverpool and his wife, gave a " dancing tea " in the town 
hall for the Americans. It was the first time that the 
edifice had been used for a social event since August, 1914, 
and the only man present in civilian dress was the Lord 
Mayor himself. 

Dale Street, the headquarters of the Red Cross, was the 
focal point for all the American soldiers who were in any 
kind of trouble. One Saturday afternoon two of them 
wandered in. They were scarcely more than boys and were 
not at all at ease when they entered. Captain Kirkover, a 
Buffalo banker, was the Red Cross man at the head of 
things in Liverpool and one of the youngsters, speaking for 
both, said to him, rather hesitatingly, " We've both been 
wounded and were discharged a little while ago from a hos- 
pital in the south of England. We're waiting our turn to 
go back to America — but we're flat broke. Both of us 
put our bank accounts at home in the names of our wives 
and — this is all we've got." 

The boy drew from his wallet a ten-dollar check of his 
wife's and handed it to Captain Kirkover. He looked it 
over and asked, " How much do you want ? " 

" What will you give me on the check ? " 



THE INCOMING LEGIONS AT LIVERPOOL 133 

" Nothing," was the quick reply. " The Red Cross is 
going to lend you the money." 

On Monday at 7 :15 o'clock in the morning when Captain 
Kirkover came downstairs into the office of his hotel he 
found the two hoys at the news stand awaiting him. The 
older one came up at once and said, " You started good 
luck for us. We got our pay through and another check for 
twenty-five from home," and immediately he repaid the 
money the Red Cross had advanced. 

One of the men from the London headquarters met Cap- 
tain Kirkover in the street in Liverpool and handed him a 
twenty-franc note. 

" What's this for ? " he asked. " What am I to do with 
it?" 

" I'll tell you where I got it," was the reply. " A woman 
handed it to me. She said that she had met an American 
enlisted man, a private, who was going home to die. He 
said to her, ' Before I go I want to give this to you and ask 
that you give it to the first American Eed Cross man you 
meet, because his people have done so much for me.' " 

On another day an Englishwoman, the wife of an Ameri- 
can husband who was a petty officer aboard ship, came to 
the Dale Street headquarters to say that her allotments did 
not reach her. She was in a pitiable condition. A little 
while before she had given birth to a baby which had died 
from lack of nourishment and she had had no money with 
which to bury it. She had borrowed four pounds from a 
money-lender in Liverpool who had paid her only three 
pounds ten shillings, taking, in the first instance, a discount 
of ten shillings and, as she learned later, tricking her into 
signing a note for seven pounds. This sum was to be re- 
paid at the rate of eight shillings a week out of wages of 
twelve shillings weekly which she received for doing clean- 
ing work on one of the ships. 

In this case the attorneys of the Red Cross at once in- 
stituted proceedings against the money-lender, paid the 



134 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

woman's debt, arranged the remittance of her allotment so 
that it reached her promptly and got her out of all her 
troubles so quickly that she wept for amazement if for no 
other reason. 

Just after Christmas, when the repatriated civilian 
prisoners began to land in England, seventy-five of the 
Americans were sent on to Liverpool for passage home and 
it devolved upon the Red Cross to outfit them with new 
suits of clothing, rain-coats and shoes, because they came 
out of Germany in nondescript shreds. In their eagerness 
to get home, three of them stowed away on a White Star 
Liner, but were discovered as the ship was leaving the 
Mersey and turned over to the civil authorities, who do not 
look with kindly eye upon travelers of that kind. Of 
course, these men immediately appealed to the Eed Cross 
and a representative went to court the morning of the ex- 
amination to see what could be done. It was too late to at- 
tempt an effort to halt the case ; the only hope lay in reach- 
ing the sympathies of the court, and this the Red Cross 
man did so effectively that the prisoners were released, thus 
adding three more to the hundreds of thousands who will 
never forget the Red Cross as long as they live. 

At Leicester, one of Liverpool's close war-relations, owing 
to the numbers of American troops which passed through 
on their way to or from the port, the Red Cross often had 
its hands full to overflowing. The first six trains that the 
Leicester canteen crew served were crowded with negro 
troops. It was at midnight that the first train came in and 
as due notice of its coming had been given, the Red Cross 
was on the platform when it arrived. Almost every man 
on the train was fast asleep and as no word had been sent as 
to the name or service of the detachment, a Red Cross 
worker with a basket of sandwiches on her arm and a 
" tank," steaming with coffee, trundling behind her down 
the walkway, called up to a coach : 

"Who's in there?" 

In one leap a man was at the window. a We's fightin' 



THE INCOMING LEGIONS AT LIVERPOOL 135 

black devils f 'm New York City, an' who you, Miss ? " 

" I'm the American Red Cross ! " 

Even in the dark it was possible to see the wide, high and 
deep grin that opened that face. " Lawzee, Miss — hyah, 
wake up, you niggers, wake up, the angels is come ! " 

As there was an allowance of only twenty minutes for 
canteen work, the detachment needed no great urging to 
swarm out of the coaches and line up for coffee and sand- 
wiches, chocolate and cigarettes and the chance for relaxa- 
tion which the stop permitted. 

There was always a great deal of merriment among the 
colored troops, much joking, not lacking in the spice of a 
real and native humor, and, of course, singing, for any 
four negroes in the world can fashion themselves into a 
" barber-shop " quartet. " The Long, Long Trail " and 
" Katie " rang out with rare melody many times in the 
reverberating spaces of the Leicester station. And here the 
Eed Cross women came upon a soldier who monumentally 
sacrificed himself on the altar of his devotion. He was the 
negro color-bearer of the regimental flag. When he got 
out of his coach he brought the flag with him, carefully 
enclosed in its shiny black water-proof scabbard atop the 
staff, but when it came time to take a mug of coffee, a 
sandwich, a bar of chocolate and a package of cigarettes, to 
say nothing of a sugary bun which had been urged upon 
him, he found that he did not have hands enough to go 
round. One had to be detailed to the colors, that was cer- 
tain, and as only one remained it could hold only one thing 
at a time and while he was deciding the order came to 
board the train and be off. If a canteen worker had not 
slipped a bar of chocolate in his pocket as he ran he would 
have had nothing. One of the officers who had been watch- 
ing the man told a Red Cross worker that there was not a 
man in the entire regiment who could get that flag away 
from the color-bearer for one sixteenth of an instant, either 
by pretext or force. 

The Leicester office of the Red Cross received a tele- 



136 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

phone call at 10:30 o'clock one night from London head- 
quarters that the first American aviation unit to be returned 
to the States after the Armistice would pass through Nune- 
aton, twenty-six miles from Leicester, at midnight and 
that there would be 250 men in the detachment. 

This, by the simplest kind of arithmetic, allowed the 
canteen one hour and a half to make coffee, gather supplies 
and scamper two score miles across the countryside — a 
" man-size job." But the force went at it tooth and nail, 
which is the proverbial way, isn't it ? piled its things into 
a motor and sped away, getting to Nuneaton just as the 
train pulled in — with 500 Americans aboard ! Nor was 
this the worst of it ; the men had had no food since break- 
fast! 

In keeping with the nursery jingle, if the provision of 
edibles and drinkables had been stronger this tale would 
have been longer, but it requires only a short time to dis- 
pense to 500 men the rations intended for 250. At any 
rate each of the 500 received a fair share by " going 
halvers " on everything. The two officers alone took noth- 
ing, saying that they much preferred relinquishing their 
portion to the men. 

Soon after the Armistice, the navy aviation camp units 
began coming through Leicester on their way to Knotty 
Ash for subsequent embarkation at Liverpool. Six hun- 
dred sailors came in a train which arrived at 2 :30 o'clock 
one morning. Naval units never traveled with mess kits 
and as the Eed Cross had only 100 cups for its service, the 
soldiers always providing their own, the problem in this 
instance was complicated by an additional washing service 
in order that each man should have a clean drinking re- 
ceptacle. And when the canteen unit was just ready to 
turn in, tired out with all this extra work, another train 
with 600 more bluejackets aboard rolled in an hour later. 

But with all the speed with which the trains were hurry- 
ing the Americans southward, the canteen people had little 
time for rest on any night, nor many intervals of even 



THE INCOMING LEGIONS AT LIVERPOOL 137 

seeming release from their task and several units have on 
record, periods of continuous labor for more than fifty-six 
hours, their members taking turns at " forty winks " on 
the un-upholstered counters of railway lunch rooms. 
Nevertheless the canteen work in the busy Midlands was 
loyally and enthusiastically carried out for many months. 
At Birmingham the trains came through either at 3 o'clock 
in the morning or at 4 o'clock in the afternoon and by means 
of blueprint plans of the station which the Red Cross fur- 
nished to the commanding officer of each detachment, it was 
possible to form the soldiers in lines and proceed with an 
orderly distribution of coffee and food, eight or ten minutes 
sufficing to serve as many as 500 men. The numbers 
served weekly were as high as 10,000 at Birmingham, 5,000 
at Leicester and 4,000 at Derby. 

Even during the greatest rush period the canteen women 
made opportunities to talk with the men, to wish them all 
sorts of good luck if they were " going up " and to con- 
gratulate them if their faces were set the other and the 
happier way. And when these tireless canteen workers 
were not serving coffee and buns at all hours of the night 
they were giving their days to visiting the wounded Amer- 
icans in the neighboring hospitals. A strange coincidence 
came of this double duty. When one of the troop-trains 
from Liverpool, loaded with American soldiers bound for 
France, pulled up in the Midland Railway station in Bir- 
mingham and the men scurried out for canteen service, 
one of the youngsters said to a Red Cross worker that he 
had a brother who was brigaded with a British division at 
the front and had been sent back, badly wounded, to a hos- 
pital somewhere near Birmingham. He wanted to know, 
even if it was sort of foolish to ask such a thing, whether 
anybody there in the canteen knew anything about this 
brother of his, how he was getting along, and whether any 
word could be sent to him that his brother had passed 
through Birmingham on the way to the line. 

The young woman of whom he inquired knew that one 



138 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

of her co-workers had been visiting Americans that day 
and called her over. Did she know anything about a Ser- 
geant X ? Surely she did, she had seen him, talked 

with him, he was getting well so rapidly that he'd be out 
of hospital in about a week. And she was- going to see 
him again to-morrow and she'd take him any message his 
brother wished to send. " Gee, Sister, but wasn't it lucky 
to- have asked ? " 



CHAPTER VIII 

A DKAMA IN" FINAWOiB 

THE entliusiastic commander of an American military 
station in England said one day : " The Red Cross 
over here is nothing less than the Genie of Aladdin's Lamp. 
We simply nib the Lamp and the Red Cross instantly ap- 
pears from somewhere with what we need ! " 

But the Genie who served even Aladdin's extravagant 
bidding had a political sinecure compared with the Red 
Cross Genie's job! Aladdin had only one lamp; the 
Genie to whom the officer so artfully referred was the 
Spirit of twice ten thousand lamps ! They were scattered 
the length and breadth of Great Britain, in every head- 
quarters, in every camp, hospital and rest station, ship 
and base-port ; there was one in the kit of every American 
soldier who set foot in the British Isles — an army of 
Aladdins — and only one Genie ! Why, comparing 
mileage alone, it makes the Arabian spook appear as if he 
had never left home! 

As the needs of a great body of men under arms are 
many and peculiar, multiplying with inevitable illness and 
the hazards of battle, never a day passed that some one 
was not rubbing a bright spot on his Lamp. The re- 
quests ranged from a pack of cigarettes to a complete hos- 
pital equipment — including the hospital itself ! The 
Red Cross Genie often had to think quickly and act at once 
because with one delay his reputation was lost. 

Countless times during his service in Great Britain his 
superhuman powers were tried, but, perhaps, never more 
notably than through the rub given to the Lamp which had 
been allotted to the office of Colonel H P E. Rethers, the 
Chief Quartermaster, at American Army Headquarters in 
London. It was Colonel Rethers himself who adminis- 

139 



140 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

tered the rub and it happened on the morning of the 19th 
of November, 1918, eight days after the signing of the 
Armistice. 

As a mere rub it differed not at all from innumerable 
others and no man living could have dreamed what was to 
come of it. But in that moment was begun a drama as 
fantastic as an Arabian Night's tale of treasure chests and 
as grotesquely human as rough hilarity and mute wretch- 
edness, shoulder to shoulder on the stage, could make it. 
There was no time for rehearsal ; with one rub the curtain 
rose and the play was on, with its vast stage and its legion 
of players. It involved the richest financial institutions 
of England in a search for long hidden treasure. It hur- 
ried trusted messengers to ransack bank vaults and started 
a veritable procession of taxicabs through the streets of 
London to transport the wealth they yielded. It sent 
lcne women on midnight journeys from city to city with 
tens of thousands of dollars concealed in their simple hand- 
bags. It brought more than a quarter of a million dol- 
lars in an iron-bound, piratical looking chest from far 
America. 

Its scenes were set in divers places and covered many 
days from dawn till almost dawn again. It conjured a 
grinning joke to the lips of a regiment of men as they 
took their cues and came from the wings, and, with swift 
tears, dimmed the eyes of many who had their allotted 
parts to play. 

This, in brief, was the drama, of an instant's creation, 
which came of the simple rub. What was the reason for 
it ? It lay in the twisted wad of English bills in an Ameri- 
can soldier's pocket, in the guarded shillings, warm in 
their cotton bag around the neck of a helpless American 
soldier on his cot, in a bounden duty to an army of Ameri- 
cans who awaited the troopships which were to bear them 
home again. 

So much for the argument ; now for the Genie's entrance 
and the play: 



A DRAMA IN FINANCE 141 

When Colonel Rethers gave the ruh the Genie responded, 
fortunately accompanied by Major Foster Rockwell — a 
famous Yale quarter-back in 1902, by the way — who was 
Director of the Red Cross Department of Military Re- 
lief, What Colonel Rethers had to say was this : 

"A large number of our troops is to be sent home as 
soon as possible. Orders have come that they are to be 
paid in American currency before they leave. This office 
has no American money; it has had to pay the men in 
English pounds, shillings and pence. It isn't quite fair 
to them that they should have to take this home for ex- 
change. Will not the Red Cross undertake, through its 
organization in the field, its conversion into American 
money for every man who is under orders to return to the 
States?" 

It was a " facer," to say the least of it, particularly 
as the Chief Quartermaster announced that on the very 
next day his department would pay off about three thou- 
sand men at Knotty Ash Camp, near Liverpool, before 
their embarkation. " I shall issue orders," he added, as 
if to lighten the task, " that not more than two pounds 
are to be exchanged for any individual, and none for 
officers." 

Prompted by a nudge from the Genie, Major Rockwell 
said, without the quiver of an eyelash, that the Red Cross 
could and would undertake the conversion and be on the 
job at once. He knew the Genie. 

While the affair was clearly one of Camp Service and 
in his jurisdiction Major Rockwell had to invoke the aid 
of the Red Cross Financial Department, that well-spring of 
benefits deserved. So he hurried across Grosvenor 
Gardens and laid his problem on the desk of Captain 
Howard L. Bridges, its Director. Captain Bridges, who 
speaks almost as quietly as he listens, reached for his 
telephone and called up a great London bank. 

" How much do you think we'll need ? " Rockwell in- 
quired as they awaited the response. 



142 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

" All we can get," Bridges replied, slowly. " This 
business is going to last for months." 

" When do you intend to start it ? " 

" To-morrow morning." 

Then came the answering ring and Bridges had the 
manager on the wire. 

" This is the American Bed Cross. Please send us at 
once all the American money, small bills — ones, twos 
and fives and all the silver coin, that you can spare. 
We'll take all you can give us, at the current rate, from 
4.76 to 4.78. . . . What? ... All right, but send it up 
in a taxi, and hurry it along, please." 

A second bank, a third, a fourth were called in the 
same way and each was urged to hasten its delivery by 
cab. 

" The procession ought to begin pretty soon," Bridges 
said quietly as he hung up the receiver on the last call. 

The first of the cabs did arrive within twenty-five 
minutes after the appeal was flashed out and before the 
end of banking hours that day more than thirty-two thou- 
sand dollars in American bills and silver had been laid 
upon Captain Bridge's desk. And such a collection of 
paper and coin it was ! Many of the bills were of issues 
unfamiliar and long superseded and the silver included the 
half-dime pieces of a bygone day and even the diminutive 
three-cent coins of silver and of nickel which are treasured 
in cases of collectors. Late in the afternoon when Bock- 
well telephoned to inquire what success he had had Bridges 
replied : 

" Oh, about enough to open a country bank, but most of 
it looks as if it had come out of the Ark ! And I've just 
had word from a broker here that he has located fifteen 
thousand for us in Liverpool. That'll probably be in shin 
plasters. Anyhow, we've scraped up more than thirty 
thousand dollars already. We can start on that, I guess." 

While the taxicabs were arriving Bridges busied him- 
self figuring out the rate at which the money should be ex- 



A DRAMA IN FINANCE 143 

changed. Many soldiers, he knew, had unwisely accepted 
$4.75 on the pound sterling. The London banks were 
offering from $4.76 to $4.78, but the fact that there were 
no American pennies to be found in England made either 
of the bank rates impossible for the Red Cross. So, in 
"order to obviate any criticism, any suggestion of money 
making by the transaction, Bridges decided upon a fixed 
rate of $4.80. It entailed a slight loss, of course, but one 
which obviously did not fall upon the men. 

This question settled, he had his staff of assistants work 
out and tabulate the American equivalent for every sum 
from a penny to a hundred pounds. Then it occurred to 
him that doubtless many of the men who had been at the 
front would still have Trench money in their pockets and 
wish this also converted. So a set of tables was prepared 
as to centimes and francs. These, with the bundles of 
money constituted the necessary paraphernalia; the ques- 
tion now was to get it to Liverpool. Fortunately, there 
was a sleeper train from London, due to reach the port at 
6 o'clock in the morning. The bills and coin were stowed 
in two leather attache boxes, which are not unlike the 
cases a far-traveling country doctor takes with him on his 
rounds, and given to Lieutenant James V. Malcolm, the 
Red Cross Comptroller, and Mrs. Sybil de G. Elsee, the 
cashier, with no more than the broad instruction that they 
were to " go to Liverpool and change the money for the 
soldiers." All the details of the task were left to their 
own devices. 

" Get whatever help you can. I'll rush the American 
money down to you as fast as it comes in/ 7 Bridges said by 
way of good-by. 

That no sleeping accommodations were obtainable on 
this always crowded midnight train made no difference; 
Malcolm and Mrs. Elsee, with their precious boxes, 
squeezed into a day compartment — and sat up all night 
in sleepless vigil. 

Now to leave them in their discomfort and return to 



144 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

Captain Bridges for a moment. Early next morning he 
took the telephone book in his lap and began calling up all 
the remaining banks, the express companies and every 
exchange broker in London with an insatiable demand for 
American money. And again the taxicab procession 
started, this time bringing in nearly forty thousand dol- 
lars. On the following day, and for many days thereafter, 
the delivery went on, the great financial houses of London 
practically stripping their vaults of American currency. 
As soon as a sufficiently large sum was collected each day 
at Captain Bridges' office, it was packed into attache cases 
and hurried to Liverpool by the night express. Now and 
then instead of the actual money, a note would come from 
some bank to say that it was expediting matters by sending 
its own messenger to a Liverpool branch with fifty or 
sixty thousand American dollars. 

So successful was Captain Bridges' quest that in seven 
days it yielded nearly two hundred thousand dollars in 
London alone. In addition to this he was notified that 
large sums had been collected by Liverpool banks, some 
of the money coming even from Glasgow, and been placed 
at the disposal of the Bed Cross. At the same time, the 
busy Chief Quartermaster's office informed him of its in- 
tent to pay other bodies of men who, likewise, " would 
appreciate the exchange." 

This was convincingly corroborative of the magnitude 
that the conversion enterprise was to attain and as Bridges 
knew he must soon exhaust the British supply of American 
currency, he cabled headquarters in Washington to dis- 
patch three hundred thousand dollars in bills by the first 
available steamer. It arrived by the Ceramic on the 9th 
of December in a formidable wooden chest weighing (some 
people dote on figures!) four hundred pounds. It was 
well that it came when it did — thanks again to the Genie 
— for so constant was the demand that by the first of the 
year at Liverpool alone, a half a million dollars had been 
paid out to the returning soldiers in exchange for their 



A DRAMA IN FINANCE 145 

equivalent in English and French moneys. Some of the 
men even proffered Dutch and Belgian money and this, 
too, to their surprise, was converted for them. 

From Liverpool, the activity was swift in extending to 
Southampton, Portsmouth and Winchester, to Dartford, 
Paignton and Tottenham, Sarisbury Court and Mossley 
Hill, to every hospital and rest camp in England at which 
American soldiers were waiting on the eve of their em- 
barkation for home. How active it really was is clearly 
conveyed in the fact that as much as forty thousand dol- 
lars were exchanged in a single day at one camp. 

The work required eventually the services of every as- 
sistant Captain Bridges could spare from his department, 
most of them young women, and of many Red Cross men 
already on duty at the camps and hospitals. It neces- 
sitated alertness, patience and kindliness unlimited and, 
in its beginnings, no small share of hardship. It was far 
from pleasant to work from early morning until long past 
dinner time with only a bite of biscuit and a cup of luke- 
warm tea for luncheon, nor was there one ounce of bodily 
comfort in sitting up all night in a lonesome hotel room 
to guard a leather case heavy with money. Yet the young 
women from the Comptroller's office did this many times 
and afterwards laughed when they told of it. One of 
them became so utterly worn out with her long vigils that 
one night she took her case, with its three thousand dol- 
lars' worth of English and American currency, to bed with 
her — " and was kept awake all night long by the beastly 
thing ! " 

They were a plucky lot, these young women upon whom 
great responsibilities and the necessity for something 
closely akin to real courage were suddenly thrust. Alone, 
without even another woman to bear them company, pro- 
tected only by their Red Cross uniforms, they carried ]arge 
sums of money — sixty-two thousand dollars was the nerve 
racking bundle entrusted to one of them on an all night 
railway journey! — from London to distant American 



146 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

camps. But they " carried on " through it all — through 
the watchfulness and weariness the work exacted, the lone*- 
someness and apprehension of traveling, and the dragging 
weight of their money cases which, though it sometimes 
reached forty pounds could not be relinquished either to 
railway porters or to courteous fellow travelers but must 
be borne to the journey's end. Nor were they without ad- 
ventures of a milder sort. A motor car bringing two of 
them back to London from Dartford with twenty thou- 
sand dollars' worth of English notes and silver they had 
received in exchange came to a dead stop at night on Black- 
heath. The knowledge each possessed that here was where 
the worthies of Dick Turpin's ilk used to make the occu- 
pants of passing coaches " stand and deliver " did not add 
to their cheerfulness when the chauffeur started on a mile 
walk for the nearest gasoline. But they rolled their 
precious packet in a robe, put their feet on it and talked 
about the weather until he returned. It was hours after 
midnight when they reached London and as there was 
nothing else to do with the money they took it home and 
sat up with it until the bank opened. 

This deserved tribute to the several self-reliant young 
women of Captain Bridges' staff must be extended also 
to the men of the Bed Cross who worked beside them. 
For they too shared the discomforts as well as the respon- 
sibilities and to all of them is due the great success 
of the enterprise. And it was a success in its every de- 
tail of intended helpfulness. In the first three months 
of its activity, it exchanged three quarters of a million dol- 
lars for the home-bound men and was equipped to go on 
as far beyond a million as any demand might necessitate. 
It added in no small way to their comfort and, to many, 
was a far more tangible token of their home-going than 
the official order which set their faces westward. 

Colonel Bethers, frank in his appreciation of the ac- 
complishment, said to the writer: 

" It meant more to the army than I can express to you. 



A DRAMA IN FINANCE 147 

And how the Red Cross accomplished it simply amazes me, 
for when the emergency arose I tried everywhere in the 
London market to get American money, with the result 
that I collected a few thousand dollars, a trifling sum in 
view of the great amount so urgently needed. But the 
Red Cross, at a moment's notice, tapped a money stream 
which has proved inexhaustible. It was wonderful, to say 
the very least of it ! 

" As a matter of cold, hard business, if one can look 
at it in that way, it has been more than satisfactory, for 
the fixed raste of exchange is obviously in favor of the 
men. As an example of prompt helpfulness it is just 
what the Red Cross has been to the men of the army in 
all of its undertakings." 

And now to hark back to Lieutenant Malcolm and Mrs. 
Elsee who, by this time — for their train was two hours 
late ! — have reached Liverpool with their precious money 
bags. 

There awaiting them at Knotty Ash Camp on the edge 
of the city, were fourteen thousand American soldiers, their 
pay in uninspiring English money heavy in their pockets, 
their eyes on the troopships impatient to embark them. 
They were men of the Aero Squadrons and the first to be 
ordered home in the dismantling of the great military 
machine America had erected in Britain. Abundant 
promise, indeed, of a busy task and, with every man's ex- 
change allowance set at two pounds, the exhaustion of the 
thirty-two thousand dollars unmistakably in sight ! 

But, cheered by the knowledge that more money would 
arrive on the morrow, Malcolm and Mrs. Elsee installed 
themselves in the Red Cross storehouse of the camp and 
set to work. They commandeered the services of all the 
available Red Cross men on detail there, placed two long 
tables to form an aisle in the storehouse, laid the money 
out on them in convenient piles, and announced that they 
were ready to begin business. 

The news that the Red Cross was opening a " Dollar 



148 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

Exchange " spread by " camp wireless " to every quarter 
of the reservation and hundreds- of men came flocking to it. 
Under the supervision of their officers they were formed 
in a queue with instructions to enter at one door, pass 
between the tables in two lines with their money ready, — 
not more than two pounds, understand ? — and then go out 
as quickly as they could by the other. 

Although they came tramping into the storehouse eagerly 
enough as soon as the doors were opened, it was as quickly 
evident that blind faith had brought a great many of them. 
These, always perplexed by England's quaint and incon- 
venient money system, had been told that they would secure 
4.80 from the Red Cross, whatever that meant, and they 
were willing to " let it go at that." They did not bother, 
half the time, to count the money they presented. A 
soldier would stop before one of the workers, toss down 
whatever his pocket contained of crumpled bills and silver 
and say : " I don't know how much that is in Honest 
to God money, but give it to me, just the same ! " An- 
other, with more of reminiscence than finance in his heart, 
would exclaim, as he smoothed out his ten-shilling notes, 
" Gimme just two of those good old long green ones an' 
you can keep the change! These soap wrappers don't 
mean a thing to me ! " And still another, fairly beaming, 
would confess, as he gathered up his share, " Well, this 
is the best thing I've bought since I've been in England, 
and I'm going to take it home to my girl for a souvenir ! " 

The arrangement of the tables and the number of Red 
Cross workers pressed into service made it possible to do 
the exchanging on both sides of the aisle and for eight men 
at once, so the line was kept in reasonably constant move- 
ment. Each process of exchange, however, meant count- 
ing the money proffered — this frequently complicated by 
the worn, wrinkled state of the bills — reference, to the 
rate table and then the counting out of the American 
equivalent. As speed was a desideratum, no time could 
be spared to separate the English money into its denomina- 



A DRAMA IN FINANCE 149 

tions. It was thrown, bills and silver together, a rag- 
man's jumble, into rough wooden sugar boxes on the floor, 
as fast as it was received. 

" That's the place for it, all right, all right," said a 
corporal as he saw it tossed away. " I never could get the 
hang of the darned stuff, anyhow." And, catching up the 
familiar bills of his own country, he kissed them with a 
resounding smack. " Oh, Baby, come to your Poppa ! " 

The mere sight of the American money was electric in 
its effect. The men in the oncoming line craned their 
necks to give it slangy greeting and grinned and joked 
over it as they shuffled out, rustling the Treasury notes 
beneath one another's noses. " You can quit kiddin' your- 
self now, Shorty ; you've got some real money — that's 
right, feel 'em, Bo ; feel 'em — now you know you're go- 
ing home, don't you ? " 

There was little apparent interest, at least in those 
first moments, in the amount they had received, every- 
thing else being quite secondary to their actual posses- 
sion of money that " talked " to them in a voice they 
had not heard for many months. The restriction of ex- 
change to two pounds for each man bothered them not 
at all, and for good reason. They simply took their places 
again in the queue and presented themselves and an- 
other two pounds when their turns came ! And so on, to 
the very bottom of their pockets. 

While this solved a problem for the men there came a 
time that day when it created almost a financial panic in 
the storehouse. Just after noon it was discovered that at 
this rate of business the American dollars would last prob- 
ably an hour longer. And then what, with a line of ex- 
pectant men stretching a hundred yards from the door- 
way? Money from London was out of the question; 
money from somewhere was an absolute necessity — and 
at once! 

Mrs. Elsee, desperately busy at one of the tables, sud- 
denly jumped up, pushed what remained of her dwindling 



150 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

pile to the worker nearest her and darted out of the 
storehouse. Around the corner a Red Cross driver was 
tinkering with his car. Mrs. Elsee ran to him and said, 
in .the haste of deadly earnest, " Please do that after you 
get hack, but take me now as fast as you can to the 
biggest bank in Liverpool. I've got to get some money for 
the men." 

Twenty minutes later at Parr's Bank she startled the 
foreign exchange manager out of years of unruffled calm 
by the headlong announcement : 

" I want all the American money you have " — and then 
— " How much have you ? " 

The manager put on his glasses, took them off again 
and replied, " Well — er — that is, I mean to say, we have 
— er — about thirty-five thousand dollars, but — " 

" I want it all, then — and you'll let me have it just 
as quickly as you can, won't you ? " Mrs. Elsee beamed 
at him. 

" Yes, I see, but — to be quite regular, you know — - 
what kind of money do you wish to give in exchange — 
or do you wish to deposit securities for the amount ? It's 
quite large, you know." He joined the tips of his fingers 
and beamed back at her. 

" I haven't any money at all to give in exchange," 
Mrs. Elsee explained in the high note of despair, " and 
I didn't have time to bring any securities. But I must 
have the money. It's for the American soldiers who are 
going home! " 

" Ah, yes, but," and on went the eye glasses for emphasis, 
" we don't give out money, thirty-five thousand dollars, 
for example, to — that is — to any young lady who chances 
to ask for it. It isn't done, I assure you." He smiled 
through the wicket in both friendliness and finality. 

" I'm afraid you don't understand," Mrs. Elsee per- 
sisted. " I'm a member of the American Red Cross — 
we're changing the English money for the men at Knotty 
Ash. It isnt for me, you know. I'll pay you for it to- 



A DRAMA IN FINANCE 151 

morrow. It's for the American Eed Cross. Please let 
me have it." 

" On what security ? " the banker asked, his eyebrows 
high over his glasses. 

" This," Mrs. Elsee replied, touching the Red Cross 
badge on her shoulder strap. "And my receipt for it," 
she added. 

The manager, intrigued into a smile, pondered a 
moment, his keen eyes searching her face. Then, with- 
out so much as another question, he told her that the bank 
would be very glad indeed to give her the thirty-five thou- 
sand dollars, and would she be kind enough to affix her 
name to a receipt for the amount ? 

Mrs. Elsee, in whose ears the impatient throbbing of the 
car at the door had never ceased to beat, caught up the 
bit of paper upon which the still smiling official hastily 
penned the date and the amount, and signed in the name 
of the American Eed Cross what was in all likelihood the 
most remarkable receipt for money ever accepted by an 
English bank. And in another twenty minutes, with the 
precious money under her arm, she was back in the Red 
Cross storehouse. 

" It's all right, I've got it ! " she cried out cheerily as 
she dumped it down on a table and tore off the wrappings. 
" Now we can change all the money you boys have," she 
announced to the soldiers, adding, with a wise smile, 
" After this you'll not have to get in line two or three 
times ! " And the laugh that followed convicted at least 
five men in the room. 

Until 7 o'clock that evening the exchanging went on 
unceasingly. By that time the litter of money was deep 
in the sugar boxes and marked inroads had been made 
upon the mounds of American bills and silver on the 
tables. More than four thousand men — by an officer's 
estimate — had passed through the exchange and they 
had taken out with them just a little less than forty-one 
thousand American dollars. 



152 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

The Eed Cross workers " shut up shop " for the day 
by squeezing the pound and ten-shilling notes and British 
silver indiscriminately into empty " Comfort bags " and, 
with the remaining American currency stowed in the at- 
tache cases, started wearily for their hotel. The day's 
work, however, was by no means at an end. There re- 
mained, after dinner, the tedious task of separating and 
counting the rag-bag of English money. This was done 
in the bedroom of one of the workers and required four 
hours of monotonous labor. And, as a further impost, 
the one chosen to guard the accumulated treasure had 
to sleep as best he could with one eye open. 

But, bright and early next morning, the " Dollar Ex- 
change " was in action again, with another and even 
longer queue of eager soldiers stretching away from its 
door. For this day's requirement there was ample provi- 
sion of funds, as Captain Bridges, eternally at it in 
London, had gathered in sixty-two thousand dollars more 
and hurried it to Knotty Ash by Miss Marjorie Taylor, 
one of the staff of his department. Miss Taylor, who de- 
clared her conviction that every one in the train knew 
exactly what she had in her leather case and only awaited 
her dropping off to sleep, delivered her charge with a pro- 
found sigh. " Now," she said, " I can draw my first deep 
breath for six hours ! " 

As the work went on the flow of money increased, the 
Liverpool banks contributing their large share and bring- 
ing the amount collected from all sources in a single day, 
the 21st of November, to more than seventy-three thou- 
sand dollars — and this was only the third day of the 
new enterprise! 

Under the inspiration of such success, the Eed Cross 
exchange at once took on not only the conversion of all 
the money the soldiers had, but of the officers' pay as 
well and the cashing of Quartermaster and personal 
cheques, bank drafts and American, English, and Inter- 
national money orders. The storehouse had become a 



A DRAMA IN FINANCE 153 

bank! Instead of proffering two pounds the men now 
came forward with thirty or forty pounds apiece in some 
instances, and received their equivalent in American 
money. And whenever it was learned that a soldier, 
through detachment from his unit and consequent failure 
to receive pay, was going back with empty pockets, he was 
told by the Red Cross that his signature was good for 
five dollars if he wished them, and that he could return 
the money after he reached home and " got everything 
straightened up." 

As a token of the unquestioning trustfulness with 
which this entire service was received, many officers and 
men who had bank accounts in England drew cheques for 
the balances due them in the name of one or another of 
the Red Cross workers in the exchange, merely asking that 
the money be collected, converted, and forwarded to them in 
America. A number of them signed cheques in blank, -un- 
certain as to the exact amount which remained banked 
to their credit. If, on the other hand, they wished these 
personal cheques cashed at once, it was done without hesi- 
tation. No service of any kind could have been broader 
or more considerate ; certainly none was more appreciated. 

It was in the second day of its unfolding at Knotty 
Ash, that this magic drama, played until then in so high 
and dominating a key of comedy, struck sharply away 
from it and all its noisy movement. The three troop- 
ships, Lapland, MinneJcalida, and Mauretania, then lying 
in readiness at their piers in Liverpool, were to take back 
to America not only the men who had filled the storehouses 
with their jesting and laughter, but a long roster of sick 
and wounded, many of them helpless in their cots. These, 
to the capacity of the transports, had been told off from 
the hospitals at Tottenham, Dartford, Sarisbury Court, 
Paignton, Hursley Park, and Mossley Hill and brought 
with all reasonable haste to Knotty Ash where they were 
to have a brief rest before the voyage. 

Those among them who were " walking cases," that is, 



154 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

convalescents from illness or from wounds or operations — 
for a number belonged to units which had been brigaded 
with the British on the Western Front — could, and did, 
go to the storehouse for the exchange of their pounds and 
shillings. But there were many, less fortunate in the 
chances of war, the men in their cots, to whom this was 
an i mm ediately recognized impossibility. As the obliga- 
tion to them was even greater than to the others, a detail 
was chosen from the " Dollar Exchange " staff and sent 
with an ample equipment of American money, to make the 
rounds of the hospital wards. 

Then it was, for these players at least, that all the drama 
changed in an instant. Instead of the dusty storehouse 
and the hilarious soldier crew with its rough drolleries, 
its joyous pr'ofanity at faring home and its endless tramp, 
tramp of heavy boots between the busy tables, here was 
the sudden silence of long, clean rooms wherein men lay 
motionless on their cots, the very remembrance of move- 
ment challenged by their bandages, and all of them heavy 
eyed with the weariness of pain and monotony ; no sounds 
about them save a nurse's quiet voice, the tinkle of a glass, 
her guarded footfall and the rustle of her skirt as she 
passed. 

When, into the first of the wards, the Red Cross workers 
came and the men were told of their errand, there was a 
stirring that ran like -a whisper through the room and 
then — but the story comes best from a woman who was 
there : 

" What -an unforgettable day that was ! It went so 
deep into my heart that I — Oh, yes, I cried, and it wasn't 
because I was a woman, either. Ask the men who went 
around from cot to cot, I know they felt it just as I did. 
Many times after that I went to other hospitals to change 
money for the men and always with a lump in my throat, 
but I shall never forget that first day. 

" We had decided that there would be much less like- 
lihood of confusion or error if we went to each man in- 



A DRAMA IN FINANCE 155 

dividually, so two of us, one for each line of cots, took the 
first ward while the others were sent elsewhere. 

" On the cot at which I started in was a youngster — 
he was from New Jersey, I think — whose gray, drawn 
face was so woefully at odds with the smile he gave me 
that I hadn't the heart to begin on the cold-blooded, how- 
much-do-you-want money business. So I said to him : 

" ' I'm glad you're going home so soon, aren't you ? ' 

" i Indeed I am, Sister,' he answered — they always 
call us ( Sister,' you know — ' even though I'm taking home 
one less leg than I brought over. But that's all right. 
Some fellows I used to know won't ever go home! ' 

" I knew then it was high time I got to work, so I opened 
my bag and he began fumbling under his pillow. 

" ' I don't think I'm going to give you much trouble,' 
he said with a funny little twist to his mouth as he drew 
out a flattened cigarette package with a rubber band about 
it. i I've only got a couple of pounds and some shillings ! ' 

" His deep eyes watched as I unfolded the packet and 
counted it out, and when I handed the American money to 
him — and I gave as much of it as I could in one dollar 
bills for a childish reason which you can easily guess — 
he spread it in his thin hands and exclaimed, ' Gee, Sister, 
but these look like letters from home ! ' 

" As I got up to go, because there were many others 
waiting and I had seen them looking so eagerly at me, he 
slid a hand furtively across the bedclothes and thrust a ten- 
cent piece into my fingers. ' Keep that for yourself,' he 
whispered and, even though my eyes filled, I saw him wink 
at me. The coin ? — Yes, I kept it ; I've got it still. It 
would have hurt him — and me too — to have given it 
back. 

" As I went from cot to cot I might have been a Fairy 
Godmother for the reception given to me. The men were 
so delighted over the actual, tangible money, truly a homely 
message to every one of them, that I began to hear them 
calling to one another down the line, their troubles for a 



156 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

time forgotten. c I didn't think it would last till you 
got to me, Sister; that guy in the next cot is sure some 
miser/ was, phrased in a dozen ways, a favorite greeting 
as I came to them. One of the men, who brought his 
money from a letter pinned to the breast of his pajamas, 
confided to me that i anybody who could change that stuff 
into sure enough money was his friend for life.' He was 
from Iowa, he said, and I hope he'll remember me as long 
as I shall remember him. 

" Almost at the end of the range of cots I came upon 
a sergeant, an older man with a face the more rugged for 
the new lines in it and these the deeper now with his smil- 
ing. He lay with the bed coverings in undisturbed, un- 
wrinkled folds close beneath his chin. 

" ' Well, we're going home, aren't we, Sister ? ' he asked, 
turning his head slowly toward me. ' Do you know 
when ? ' he continued as I nodded. ' I hear I'm booked 
for the Lapland.' 

" I told him she was all ready and would probably leave 
in a day or two. ' Say, that's fine, isn't it ? ' he went on, 
' 'cause I've got some folks over there who'll be mighty 
glad to see me. You married, Sister? JSTo? / got a 
wife ! Yep, looks something like you, too — I'm not kid- 
ding you. She's got brown hair just like yours. Staying 
with her people just outside of Pittsburgh 'til I get home.' 

" He was so like others, eager to talk about anything 
to one of his own country, delighted to break the monotony 
of endless hours. I knew he would keep me there in- 
definitely, so I swung my money bag before me and took 
out a handful of bills. 

" ' I know you'll want to take some of these home with 
you,' I said, leading the way to business, for a man in 
the next cot was making obvious signs to me with an 
old black pocketbook. 

" ' You bet ! ' he replied, with a bright smile. ' They're 
just what the doctor ordered ! ' 

" I waited for him to unearth from somewhere the little 



A DRAMA IN FINANCE 157 

package of his guarded money, but lie was evidently think- 
ing of other things, because now he was not looking either 
at me or at the magnetic bills I held. Then something, 
my silence, perhaps, drew his face toward me. ' Oh, yes, 
the money,' he said. ' I forgot. I guess you'll have to 
help me, Sister,' he went on, ' 'cause I can't move. IVe 
only got one arm and I've lost my other hand, and — ,' he 
hesitated ; — I knew now why he had not held out a hand 
to me in greeting as the rest had done when I came up — 
i and if it isn't any trouble, you'll find the money round 
my neck — just pull that string up, Sister.' 

" He put his head to one side and I found the string 
and drew up a little bag made of the palm of an old kid 
glove. 

" ' There you are ! That was easy, wasn't it ? ' he 
laughed. ' There ought to be six or seven pounds in it, 
and some other things. Dump 'em out.' 

" I emptied the bag on the cot — seven pounds and eight 
shillings, a pair of silver cuff buttons and, wrapped in a 
torn bit of tissue paper, a small gold brooch set with an 
amethyst. And all of them warm from their contact with 
him. 

" While I was counting out the American money due 
him I could feel his eyes upon my face. Of the hundreds 
for whom I had done this service he was the first whose 
sole attention was not upon the transaction. As I folded 
the bills and was about to tuck them into the bag he 
stopped me. 

" ' Wait a minute, Sister — you certainly do look like 
my girl — what's your name ? — will you tell me ? ' 

" I told him and, quite unconnectedly, he said, nodding 
toward the bag, ' That's a dandy pin, isn't it ? ' and, with- 
out awaiting my answer, he added, as if to give the trinket 
greater value, ' I bought it off a British Tommy up near 
Cambrai — it would look mighty good on you, Sister — 
how would you like to have a pin like that % ' He smiled 
with a great expectancy. ' — Something to remember — ' 



158 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

" I suppose I gulped, as I did over the ten-cent piece, 
but I cut him short. It wasn't pleasant to see the smile 
die on his lips, when I swore to him that I had a brooch 
almost exactly like it, even to the amethyst, but it was the 
only thing I could think to say. He helped me out after 
an uncomfortable pause with, ' That's too bad, Sister, I'm 
sorry — but never mind, put 'em all back — and thanks 
— it's good to be going home, isn't it ? — even the way 
I'm going — ! ' 

" I touched his cheek just a moment in an answer I hope 
he understood and tucked the bag about his neck and went 
on my way with another lump in my throat. 

" For all the heart-wrenching it gave me, it was wonder- 
ful to go down that line of men and talk with them and 
help them. Money-changing may seem a strange form of 
hospital ministration, but I feel that every dollar I took 
with me did its bit and was veritable medicine to those un- 
fortunates. And I can tell you that, time and time again, 
it was all I could do to match their brave cheerfulness. 
I paid as much out of my heart as I did out of my money 
case. 

" The last boy of all was shadow-thin. He looked like 
an Italian. His eyes were burning in his dark face. As 
soon as I was beside him he clutched my hand in both of 
his and half rose from his pillow. A nurse, who had paused 
for a moment at the foot of his cot, came behind me and 
put her hand to his forehead, gently pressing him back. 
i You're better to-day, aren't you ? ' she asked, giving his 
pillow a pat-pat. ' You'll be all right in no time ! ' And, 
as she went by me again she whispered in sick-room code, 
' Excitable — been terribly ill — typhoid — bundle of 
nerves.' 

" ' What did she say, Miss ? ' he asked me in quick sus- 
picion as the nurse went out. 

" i Only that you were getting well,' I replied, and I 
felt his clasp tighten as I started to draw my hand away. 

" i Am I, Sister ? — I dunno, — I don't feel right, some- 



A DRAMA IN FINANCE 159 

how ! ' He looked up at me in bewilderment. i The 
doctor says I'm doing fine. I don't hear the guns any 
more.' 

" ' Yes, and you're going home, too,' I assured him, 
this time disengaging my hand and opening my horribly 
material money case. 

" I know I am.' He stopped and looked about to see if 
any one listened, then added in a low voice, ' But somehow 
I don't feel like I'm ever going to get there — ' 

" Why, of course you are ! ' I exclaimed with all the 
conviction I could muster, for I knew he believed what he 
said. ' And you're going to take home some real money, 
too — the kind you know all about ! ' 

" This formula had never failed of its interest, especially 
when I simultaneously produced a packet of bills. But 
the boy didn't take it in just the way I hoped. 

" ' Yes, I want to talk to you about that,' he said 
thoughtfully. ' I've got some money here ' — he drew a 
rubber tobacco pouch from under the covers and put it 
in my hand — ' but I'm not going to take it with me — 
I want you to send it home for me — you understand, 
don't you ? — If I don't get home, that will — see ? — I 
got a mother home.' 

" There was a wistfulness and an earnestness in the 
request against which I couldn't prevail, however I argued 
with him. His worn pouch held nearly fourteen pounds, 
and when I had exchanged them he would take only a few 
dollars, all the rest were to be sent to America. So I 
wrote down the directions as he gave them to me and put 
them with his money. As I moved away from him he 
hung tight to my hand and suddenly drew it down and 
kissed it — and when I took it away there was a tear on 
the back of it. I glanced over my shoulder as I hurried 
to the doorway, but everything was so blurred I couldn't 
see him. I never did see him again but he got home safely. 
I know that because his mother wrote to thank me for — 
well, for nothing at all." 



160 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

It required the greater part of the day to complete the 
rounds of the hospital wards and then the workers went 
back, with no little relief, to the comedy of the storehouse 
which had been playing merrily on in their absence. A 
broad canvas sign, " American Red Cross Dollar Ex- 
change," was now hung on the outer wall and an additional 
exchange table set up for business beneath it. Orders had 
been issued that the Lapland, the first troopship to sail 
from England home-bound after the Armistice, must cast 
off on the morning of November 24 and the Minnehahda 
and Mauretania as soon as possible thereafter. This made 
it necessary to rush the exchange work and it was done 
with such dispatch that when the Lapland put off on the 
appointed day with the Minnehahda an hour astern of her 
and the Mauretania on the following morning, every 
soldier aboard them had had his money changed and was at 
ease on that score at least. 

As the work grew, the burden of carrying the money 
back and forth between the camp and the hotel in town 
grew with it until the Manager of the Foreign Depart- 
ment of Parr's Bank in Liverpool came to the rescue 
with the generous offer of a safe. This was transported to 
the storehouse and Lieutenant Colonel Launcelot M. Pur- 
cell, Q. M. C, the army officer in command at Knotty 
Ash, provided a night sentry detail to guard it. Also he 
invited the women workers in the exchange to the officers' 
mess for luncheon and put a happy end to their biscuit- 
and-cold^tea makeshift even if he did create something of 
a sensation in the mess. 

The comedy of the exchange received a decided fillip 
when a negro labor battalion arrived. It was a happy-go- 
lucky crowd until the question of money arose, and then 
the men were caution itself, even while they joked over 
it. Very few were inclined to offer at once all the money 
they had. Perhaps they wanted to sample, as it were, the 
services of the exchange before committing themselves. 
Perhaps they preferred that the next man in line should 




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A DRAMA IN FINANCE 161 

not know their exact financial status, for sheer human 
curiosity invariably prompted every man to watch his 
neighbor's transaction. At any rate, most of them began 
by laying down ten shillings or a pound, as if they were 
buying an admission ticket, and when the Red Cross 
worker had made the exchange, which the recipients duly 
counted and stowed away, out of another pocket would 
come another pound. Not infrequently four or five such 
installments would appear, each as an unexpected discovery 
and tendered with a wider grin. It augmented the work 
of the exchange people but more than once the comments 
it provoked from the waiting line were ample payment. 
One " customer " who held up the column while he ex- 
tracted bills and silver from his pockets, his cap, even his 
shoe, was asked by one behind him in a voice which almost 
broke in its pathos, " Say, man, is you bleedin money ? " 

Another favorite habit among them was the presentation 
with their money of a slip of paper on which they had 
carefully worked out the exchange. But it was nearly 
always wrong and then usually to their own disadvantage. 
" Yaas, Miss — thanky, Miss. This here English Arith- 
metic kinda bent under me, didn' it ? " 

While the aggregate of money in the battalion was not- 
ably high it was spread very thinly in places. Many of 
the men had only a few shillings while others offered 
as much as forty or fifty pounds. Noting this, as well 
as the comment of those near by when one of them offered 
for exchange nearly four hundred pounds, it was readily 
deducible that baseball was not the only American pastime 
which had been carried to England to flourish on her 
soil. 

" Oh, you bones ! " 

This was the first of the illuminating comments on the 
four hundred pounds and it lighted the way for others 
in the waiting line. 

" He did n' shoot no Germans, but he cert'n'y did shoot 
ev'ybody else ! " 



162 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

" Eem-mind, we'll git dat nigger when he gits on de 
boat!' 7 

" Not me, boy ; nosuh — any coon what can shoot de 
works and five twice — nosuh — not me! " 

The unperturbed object of all this folded and creased 
his American dollars with marked deliberation and tucked 
them deep in his pocket. Then he turned, looked down 
the line, and said in slow, fine scorn: 

" On de boat, hey % Zasso f Why that's when I'm g'on 
t'git de income tax outer you ! " And he laughed himself 
all the way out of the storehouse. 

As the capacity of Knotty Ash was 40,000 men, other 
camps and hospitals " cleared " through it in returning 
their contingents to the States, so, for a long time, a con- 
stant stream of soldiers flowed in and out of the " Dollar 
Exchange." The numbers which arrived made such 
heavy demand upon the enterprise that in addition to the 
sums the London and Liverpool banking, express and 
brokerage houses were able to furnish, it was necessary 
to seek the aid of many Scotch, Welsh, and Irish financial 
concerns. Days in which the exchange amounted to forty 
thousand dollars were by no means uncommon. In the 
first six weeks of the existence of the " Dollar Exchange " 
at Knotty Ash alone, the transactions in American money 
totaled more than $450,850 ! 

It was when the troopships were about to sail that the 
exchange staff was put to its utmost effort, for its work 
had to be accomplished not only as quickly as possible but 
without interfering with the ordered routine of embarka- 
tion. The day before the Leviathan, once the boast of 
Germany's merchant marine, sailed from Liverpool on 
her first post-war voyage, it was necessary for the Red 
Cross workers to take their bags of money aboard and tour 
the decks in order to finish their task. Everything went 
well until it was discovered that two thousand naval avia- 
tion men had been marched to the ship without an oppor- 
tunity of having their English money changed. At that 



A DRAMA IN FINANCE 163 

moment only seven thousand American dollars remained, 
so Lieutenant D. E. Shumaker, Auditor of the Red Cross, 
who had now taken charge of the exchange work at Knotty 
Ash, went on a dead run to Parr's Bank and " borrowed " 
twenty-three thousand dollars on an " I. O. U." When he 
returned, the situation was further saved by Paymaster 
Harris of the ship, who lent his office to the Eed Cross so 
that the soldiers and sailors might be formed in a queue 
and paid through his window. 

The Leviathans company included 1,500 sick and 
wounded men, of whom more than a hundred were 
stretcher cases from hospitals in the Winchester area. 
These had been carried directly from their train to the 
ship and as soon as they were placed in the sick bay, two 
of the workers were sent below to go from cot to cot with 
the money cases. 

From noon, when the work was begun, the corps of 
cashiers kept at it until half -past eleven o'clock that night. 
Two armed men were then assigned to accompany the 
Red Cross party on its long journey to the hotel in the 
city and stayed there the night on guard. At 7.30 next 
morning, which was December 4, the little band hastened 
back to the ship and there found three of Paymaster 
Harris' assistants asleep on chairs in his office ! They had 
volunteered to sit up all night in order to finish the work 
put aside when the office was so graciously lent to the 
Red Cross. 

The Leviathan sailed at 10.15 o'clock that day and only 
ten minutes before that time did the exchange workers 
close their bags and slip over -the side. And one hundred 
and fifty dollars were all that remained of the thousands 
in American money they had taken aboard. 

But at least a week before the Leviathan put off the 
" Dollar Exchange " had outgrown Knotty Ash. The 
army, delighted with the success of this cooperation, had 
sent word that the men were to be paid off at other rest 
stations and hospitals, Tottenham, Dartford, Winchester, 



164 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

Paignton, Portsmouth ; " and would not the Ked Cross, 
etc. — etc." Sometimes the request was supplemented by 
some such announcement as, " the men are to be paid off 
this afternoon as they sail at 4 o'clock to-morrow morn- 
ing." This allowed little enough time for all that had 
to be done, but with the arrival of three hundred thou- 
sand dollars in new $1, $2 and $5 bills in a stout box from 
America on December 9, the problem was much simplified. 
Incidentally, the box was held up for a time by the British 
Customs officials who cited against it a charge of seven 
and a half per cent of its value until they learned the 
destined use of the money, when it was immediately re- 
leased and forwarded to London. It arrived, fortunately, 
at a time in which the English supply of American cur- 
rency was almost exhausted. 

Now squads of cashiers could be dispatched post-haste 
in answer to every call from the Chief Quartermaster, 
visits were made to all the London hospitals and a general 
notice was issued that the " Dollar Exchange " in Red 
Cross Headquarters in Grosvenor Gardens was always 
" open for business." Officers and men on their way to 
France made frequent use of it and even one day a soldier 
came in to ask if he could buy a three-cent silver piece, 
" for a young lady's coin collection." 

The increased activities of the money exchange often 
meant long night or day journeys, both week days and Sun- 
days, at scarcely more than a moment's notice. But what- 
ever tasks the undertaking imposed, they were always per- 
formed with prompt cheerfulness, with no thought of self, 
even when they carried the workers into the contagion 
wards of hospitals, as they sometimes did. Too much 
cannot be said of the capable and altogether faithful serv- 
ice given by the young women of the Red Cross* Depart- 
ment of Einance — Mrs. Elsee, Miss Taylor, Miss 
Christine Lefrere, Miss Kathleen King, Miss Queenie 
Haskins, Miss Winifred St. George, Miss Kathleen Challis 



A DRAMA IN FINANCE 165 

— and of many others who did their so valuable share in 
making the " Dollar Exchange " a success. 

This chronicle would not be complete without reference 
to two other " adventures " of the Red Cross Finance De- 
partment. 

When the American troops were ready for dispatch to 
Archangel in the summer of 1918, Captain Bridges was 
asked if he wouldn't look about and get some Kussian 
rubles for them. 

" I looked about," Captain Bridges said afterward in 
narrating the incident, " and it made me dizzy. The rate 
for rubles was going up and down like a slide trombone. 
The first day I took a look you could buy 268 rubles for 
ten pounds. When I looked again next day you could 
get 420 ! And, mind you, there were two kinds of rubles, 
the Kerensky kind, and the Imperials which the Bolsheviki 
used after blotting out the picture of the Czar. They kept 
going up and down quite independently of each other — it 
was like watching a juggler toss balls in the air. I kept 
close to the ground and when one came down I bought it. 
In this way I collected a mixture of 100,000 rubles and 
handed them over to the soldiers. They rather sniffed 
at them, but I knew they would be good in Archangel, 
that is, if the troops hurried ! " 

The second episode deals with a box of Roumanian lei. 
When Lieutenant Colonel Henry W. Anderson, who is 
now Red Cross Commissioner to the Balkans, was Com- 
missioner to Roumania and had to hasten away from the 
uncertainties of life, liberty and Red Cross pursuits there, 
he managed to bring out a boxful of lei. This was turned 
over to the Red Cross in London for conversion into 
English money. The lei market was almost as frisky as 
that for rubles, the value dancing up and down on both 
sides of nineteen cents. Again Captain Bridges had to 
keep a weather eye cocked, and by watching the rate and 



166 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

biding his time lie was able eventually to dispose of the 
boxful for £120,000 — approximately $600,000 — but not 
before be bad collected £2,000 in interest on it during its 
sojourn in the bank ! 

" Tbe American Red Cross bas bought American dollars, 
French and Belgian francs, Danish kroner, Russian rubles, 
Dutch florins, Italian lire, and Roumanian lei ! " Captain 
Bridges exclaimed one day. " And I'm only waiting now 
for some one to send in an order for Zulu cowries ! " 



CHAPTER IX 

THE " SHEPHERD " AT LIVERPOOL 

WHEN men go forth to war they not infrequently 
return with wives. (See page 1, volume I of 
the history of any war.) In olden times they were brought 
home, either in chains — for there was nothing chic in be- 
ing wayward in those days — or else all smiles on gayly 
caparisoned steeds, caracoling beside their masters' charg- 
ers. At all events they were brought and some lived 
happily ever after. 

When the United States forces turned homeward from 
the battle regions of Europe, the custom was too well- 
recognized to be ignored. They followed it — with a 
variation; they did not bear their wives home, that is, 
not many. They sent for them. 

It was by reason of this modern amendment to a vener- 
able practice that the American Bed Cross came to play 
an important role in behalf of a large number of the 
soldiers and sailors of our oversea legions. It did not 
furnish caparisoned palfreys, but it did supply smiles and 
smoothed the way for the far-faring of these wives to the 
husbands who awaited them in the States. In more than 
one instance it turned dismay into laughter and mirac- 
ulously proved that a five-pound note could appear among 
the few hoarded shillings tied in the corner of a tear-sodden 
handkerchief. 

The marriage of these soldiers and sailors was in- 
evitable, particularly among those remaining long at one 
encampment or station. And just as inevitable was the 
difficulty of getting the brides back to America. Rules 
were, of necessity, very rigid in such a matter. There 

167 



168 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

was no question of a man's right to marry, but the Gov- 
ernment insisted upon prescribing the terms upon which 
the new wife might join her husband. Permission for 
the married soldiers to take wives with them on their home- 
ward-bound transports was, as a practice, obviously out 
of the question. Nor could such soldiers obtain detach- 
ment from their returning units in order to sail by the 
transports which carried women. Therefore, the only 
course was to leave the problem in the hands of the Gov- 
ernment and pray for patience. The Government's kindly- 
intentioned reply was : " We'll send your wife to you as 
soon as a proper ship is available." 

So, willy-nilly, the soldiers and the sailors sailed away, 
all of them anxious, many quite in ignorance of the con- 
ditions the Government would impose and of the difficulties 
their wives were to face. It was a wretchedly unhappy 
situation for every one, but military and naval regula- 
tions are adamant. 

In agreement upon a common debarkation port for the 
wives of men of both services, the army and navy author- 
ities selected Liverpool, and then drew up the governing 
regulations. It was not intended that these should, in any 
instance, prove to be a hardship. Bather was it intended 
as a safeguard, to prevent deception and imposition. 
First of all, a woman claiming to be the wife of a soldier 
or sailor was required to produce indubitable proof of her 
marriage, in addition to her marriage certificate, and also 
establish the fact that her husband desired her with him 
in America. Thereafter, in turn, she must, if a British 
subject or other foreigner, register at the Alien Bureau, 
make a written or personal application at Army or Navy 
Headquarters in London for oversea transportation, show 
possession of at least five pounds sterling, with a total 
of funds sufficient to carry her to her destination in 
America, and finally apply to an American Consul for 
an emergency passport good for thirty days. Upon com- 
pliance with all these requirements she then received an 



THE " SHEPHERD " AT LIVERPOOL 169 

order for transportation and finally assignment to a par- 
ticular ship. The authorities agreed to take all the young 
women to America passage-free, hut exacted from them 
the payment of one dollar a day for maintenance during 
the voyage. 

As the greater number of these wives were girls, either 
still in their teens or just beyond them, who never before 
in their lives had been more than ten miles from home, 
the contemplation of a long journey to a strange country 
quite appalled them. Their dismay often robbed them 
even of simple intelligence. They were like lost and be- 
wildered children. It was a predicament for women and 
authorities alike. 

Perplexed and distraught by the ever-increasing com- 
plexities of the situation, the XL S. Naval Base at Liver- 
pool called upon the Eed Cross one day late in February, 
1919, to ask if it would not undertake the chaperonage of 
these frightened voyagers, help «and comfort them, do some^ 
thing to make the task happier for every one. In re- 
sponse, Miss Byrd McFall, of Oklahoma, one of the Red 
Cross workers, a self-reliant, sisterly young woman, re- 
ported at Navy Headquarters in the Northwestern Hotel, 
ready to enlist the Red Cross as shepherd to the flock. 

At that time the only ships available for the transport 
of the " military wives " were the Plattsburg, Harris- 
burg, and Louisville. Later, however, in the middle of 
March, seventy-five were dispatched on the Aquitania and 
an equal number on the Kronprinz Friedrich Wilhelm. It 
was then possible to provide a ship about every ten days. 
The problem confronting the army as well as the navy, 
was how to care for wives when they either disobeyed in- 
structions and in their eagerness came to Liverpool far in 
advance of the designated sailing day or else, having re- 
ported in time, were compelled to endure a necessarily 
postponed sailing. Liverpool was crowded — every one 
was working at high-tension — the women were an added 
responsibility — it was a problem indeed. 



170 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

When Miss McFall arrived at Navy Headquarters she 
found more than a dozen distressed brides. They were 
frightened, sad, excited, or dazed according to their 
natures and not one of them had the least idea of what to 
do for herself or with herself. The Naval officer who had 
sought the aid of the Red Cross delivered them into the 
worker's hands with a look that bespoke his dilemma. 
They were the wives of sailors already in America, they 
were to go as soon as possible aboard the Plattsburg, which 
was due to sail on the following morning — and couldn't 
something be done to cheer 'em up a bit ? 

As a matter of fact what that little party most needed 
just then was a woman and it was relieved to see one. 
The first task was to make sure that all papers were in 
order, all obligations fulfilled. The papers were in every 
way satisfactory, but when it came to the financial require- 
ment, there was the rub. Several of the women had only a 
few pounds, others less than a dozen shillings. They were 
to sail to-morrow, they were miles from home and friends, 
probably their pocket-books held all they had, all they could 
get anywhere. So at once the Eed Cross stepped in with a 
tangible ministration; it offered to advance to each de- 
linquent a sufficient amount to bring her treasury to the 
stipulated sum of five pounds, the advance to be deemed a 
loan and receipted for as such. And with that the sun 
came out ! 

Next in order was the collection of the luggage of the 
women, rarely more than a small hand bag for each of them, 
the proper labeling of it and the gathering up of the in- 
evitable small almost-lef t-behind bundles, and the squad was 
ready to move. It was a long journey to the steamship pier 
so the Red Cross engaged a trio of taxicabs, stowed the 
women and their baggage within and carried them off in 
comfort. Once aboard the transport, Miss McFall found 
there seven additional young women, the wives of soldiers, 
who had, somehow or other, managed for themselves. But 
only three of these had sufficient money for maintenance 



THE " SHEPHERD " AT LIVERPOOL 171 

during the voyage and were in grave distress. But, to their 
amazement and delight, the Red Cross came to their aid as 
it had come to that of the others and the last difficulty was 
swept away. 

The efficiency with which the Red Cross managed this 
initial emergency and the amount of aid it was to the 
authorities resulted in placing all future arrivals under 
Red Cross care during their stay in Liverpool. In this way 
it was possible to obviate the confusion and errors into 
which these young women fell through sheer nervousness 
over their great adventuring. Also the Red Cross greatly 
facilitated the financial matter by making it possible for 
any sailor or soldier to arrange for a loan for his wife at the 
time of his own departure for America. Thus, whatever 
money she needed would be in readiness for her upon her 
arrival later at Liverpool. Of course not all of the women 
were in need of guidance or assistance, although the Red 
Cross took them safely aboard ship with the others, but 
everyone was asked to register her name and destination in 
the United States, as the names of all who sailed were im- 
mediately cabled to New York. There the travelers were 
met by the Red Cross, taken to comfortable quarters and 
later dispatched to their destinations. In every case a 
telegram was sent to the wife's new home giving news of her 
coming and the hour at which her train would arrive. So 
these women were under Red Cross care practically from 
the time they entered Liverpool until they crossed the 
threshold of the homes that awaited them in far America. 

For more complete and systematic shepherding of its 
charges, the Red Cross created a bureau at its Liverpool 
headquarters, No. 35 Dale Street, and there Miss McFall 
established herself. At first, when there were only a few 
applicants, it was possible to provide accommodations for 
them in hotels in the city. Later, however, it was neces- 
sary to obtain quarters for as many as forty at a time, and 
then the Red Cross set up a " home " or club in one of the 
non-wards of the Knotty Ash Camp Hospital on the out- 



172 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

skirts of Liverpool. It was equipped to provide sleeping 
facilities for fifty women and furnished with a piano, 
music, books, newspapers and magazines — far more com- 
forting than a hotel room. It had the additional advantage 
of being directly opposite the Red Cross canteen and ar- 
rangements were made to provide meals for them there. 

But it was in the Dale Street room, rather than in the 
improvised camp " club," that one more clearly realized the 
Red Cross problem and the patient solution of it. It has 
been 'said, most of the hopeful voyagers were young women, 
but in some -instances the soldiers or sailors had married 
widows, even with children. One such " bride " started 
for her husband with a brood of four, the ■eldest of which 
was five years old. Also a few of the young women had 
babies which their fathers, long since returned to Ame rica, 
had never seen. Two girls, who sailed on one of the voy- 
ages of the Louisville, had children six or eight months old 
born after their fathers had been invalided home. One 
baby was born on the Louisville in April, 1919. It was 
appropriately named " Louis " and presented with a purse 
of $350 made up on the ship. 

In the Dale Street bureau one morning, five young 
women were in the reception room, awaiting turn to be 
questioned by the Red Cross " Shepherdess " to make 
certain that their papers and all the rest of it were in ac- 
cord with regulations. It was difficult to look upon them 
as brides eager to be off to their liege-lords. They seemed, 
rather, to be waifs, lost in a great city. Now and then 
they talked together but always in low tones and with con- 
stant glances at doors and at their small valises and bundles. 
And every minute or two one of them would begin a hur- 
ried, agonized searching of every pocket and recess of her 
clothing. The lost was invariably found and proved to be 
a paper which, after perusal, was instantly transferred to 
another hiding place. A few minutes later the frenzied 
search would be begun all over again. There was no doubt 
that these women were a-quiver with nervousness. 



THE " SHEPHERD " AT LIVERPOOL 173 

The reason for it was not obscure. They were young, 
unaccustomed to travel, save of the most limited kind, and, 
generally, possessed of only vague understanding of where 
they were to go and how. America was millions of miles 
away, across a great ocean ; they were to be out of sight of 
land for days and days. It was quite enough to daunt these 
simple country girls, for that's what so many of them were. 
But, for all their apprehension, they had an admirable 
hardihood and determination to face anything if they might 
only get to their husbands in America. 

Suddenly the first girl was called to the desk in the ad- 
joining room. She started forward from her seat, drop- 
ping a bundle, picking it up, dropping another and break- 
ing into a laugh in which, for their own relief, all the others 
joined, as she passed out. She was of the type that is 
slender but strong, with bright, clear eyes, a ruddy English 
color and had evidently dressed herself with scrupulous 
care. 

The first questions she answered disclosed her husband's 
name, rank, and service, her own name before marriage 
and her home, — in the south of England. 

" You're an army girl, aren't you '( " She was asked by 
Miss McEall, who then requested all her papers. Imme- 
diately this necessitated the excited search of pockets and 
dress front. When the documents were found to be in mili- 
tary order, the questioning was resumed. The girl was go- 
ing to Chicago to meet her husband, she said. 

" What do you know about your husband ? " 

Her answer was, unfortunately, identical with that which 
nine out of ten of these young women gave. 

" K-nothing — much." 

" When did you meet him ? " 

" I was a waitress in a restaurant where he used to come. 
He asked me to go out with him. I knew him that way a 
couple of months, and then he asked me to marry him — 
so we got married. I stayed in the cafe and he went back 
to camp, but I used to see him every few days." She had 



174 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

become quite breathless as she ran on, and stopped abruptly 
with an embarassed smile. 

" How old are you ? " 

" Eighteen, that is, eighteen and two months." She 
scarcely looked it. 

" Has your husband told you anything about his people 
at home % " 

" Oh yes ; he says he hasn't any. But he's got an aunt, 
he says, who's going to take me in till he's demobilized." 

" Have you had any letters from him since he returned 
to America ? " 

In answer, she unbuttoned the waist of her dress and 
drew out several compactly folded and rather worn pages 
and lay them, still warm, in Miss McFall's hand. 

" You don't mind if I take just a little look at them, do 
you % " 

First came a blush, a smile and the catching of a lower 
lip between the teeth in momentary hesitancy. " Well, 
they're — you know, he — er — = all right, you can look at 
them." 

The letters were nearly always alike, physically and 
spiritually, for, after all, the language of love varies not in 
root or branch, only in its flowers. There was the same 
token of brief schooling in the labored handwriting and the 
occasional misspelling, and the reiterations for lack of 
more words in which to tell of affection and lonesomeness 
and longing. And again and again the letters ended with 
the familiar " Lots of love and kisses " and the cabalistic 
string of X's. 

" How much money have you ? " followed the return of 
the letters to their hiding place. 

From another recess came a small, round leather purse, 
with a worn nickel clasp, and from it were extracted in 
turn, a newspaper clipping, a bit of soiled ribbon, a key, 
three hairpins and — two pounds, ten shillings. The girl 
lay the money on the desk and hastily crowded the odds 
and ends back into the purse. She glanced at the crumpled 



THE " SHEPHERD » AT LIVERPOOL 175 

bills and the coins with an indifference which was tell-tale 
of her satisfaction. 

" Is that all yon have ? " 

A look of genuine surprise greeted the inquiry. Two 
pounds, ten shillings did not seem such a trifling sum. She 
had evidently been long in saving it. That was what made 
it so difficult to tell her' that she must have so much more 
before she could be permitted to sail. There must be 
money for her maintenance aboard, and enough left over 
to take her all the way to Chicago. Had she not thought 
of that % Her silence, the sudden compression of her lips 
spoke for her. And then, with an uncontrollable quiver- 
ing of her chin, came the tears. Between her deep sobs, she 
stammered her despair ; if was all the money she had, her 
husband had never given any to her, what could she do % 

But, quick as was the despairing outburst, Miss McFall 
had sprung up and laid a hand on the girl's shoulder. 
Now, now, she mustn't cry — it wasn't so hopeless as that, 
because the Red Cross was there to help her, it was there 
just for that purpose. It would lend her husband what- 
ever money she needed to get her home to him. She could 
tell him about it and he would send it back to the Red Cross 
as soon as he was able. Now wasn't that all right? 

Conviction did not come very quickly. It seemed in- 
credible that the weight which had fallen so heavily upon 
her could be so miraculously lifted. But in a little while 
the sodden handkerchief was tucked away and something 
besides tears began to shine in the girl's eye. And then, 
the smile — 

" Oh, it's worth living for, that smile of relief -that comes 
into their faces," said Miss McFall, when the girl of a wife 
had gone out, leaving her troubles behind her. " It's not 
pleasant to have to question them so closely, but we must 
do it, and now and then I pay for it with a tear of my own. 
You see, so few of them, particularly the very young ones, 
are able to save enough money to undertake the journey. 
They are all, or nearly all, working girls who have earned 



176 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

small wages. And, unfortunately, their husbands have not 
thought to provide them with money, perhaps they haven't 
had it themselves. So it's just like exploding a shell in the 
room to tell them that they need five or six pounds more 
than the amount they have so carefully put aside. Some 
of them, of course, have quite enough money, even to get 
rooms for themselves in Liverpool, so they do not require 
our help. But for the majority, the large majority, the 
Red Cross is an angel unaware. 

" Then, too, the nervous plight of the girls who came here 
is pathetic. They are like little children. I've known 
them fail to remember their names! They forget their 
baggage, their passports, everything it is impossible to for- 
get. I can only imagine what would happen to them if 
they were not actually shepherded aboard their ships. 
There they are safe, because afterward not one of them is 
permitted to come ashore save in my personal charge. The 
authorities had to make that regulation to prevent them 
from wandering off and, in all likelihood, missing the ship, 

" For another thing, they seem to have so little idea of 
distance, of the vastness of the country to which they are 
going. I remember one little girl who was going to Port- 
land, Oregon. She had only two pounds in her purse and 
when I asked her how she expected to get to Portland on 
that, she replied, bless your heart, with the most confident 
smile : ' I'll call my husband on the telephone as soon as I 
get to New York and tell him I'm there, and he'll come 
meet me ! ' I told her that when she arrived in America 
she would then be just as far from her husband as she was 
that minute from New York, and she promptly burst into 
tears. Another girl asked me when her ship stopped at 
Brighton, which is near Birkenhead, just across the river, 
because some of her friends wanted to come to the wharf to 
see her off. She opened her eyes in amazement when I 
explained that if the ship stopped at all, it would be at 
Brest in France. 

" However, it is not only in the little money transactions 



THE " SHEPHERD " AT LIVERPOOL 177 

and in caring for the girls and seeing them safely aboard 
that the Red Cross is able now and then to give a helping 
hand. There was one girl, she was little more than a child, 
eighteen, perhaps, who came from Birkenhead. She came 
directly aboard the transport to which she had been previ- 
ously assigned, on the afternoon before sailing. It was her 
belief that she had come to report and she intended to take 
the ferry home at six o'clock. I knew nothing of this and, 
in due course, assigned her v with the others, to a cabin. 
Later, I found her in her room, weeping her eyes out. 
When I asked what could be the matter, she told me she had 
tried to leave the ship and had been stopped. Her mother 
was waiting for her, and what would she think had become 
of her ! ' I've never even said good-by to her ! ' she cried. 
So I sent a telegram to her mother, because I couldn't let 
the girl leave the ship at that late hour — it was to sail 
early next morning — and the old lady, far beyond sixty, 
came to the ship with her daughter's little trunk. I got 
permission to bring her aboard and she and her daugther 
had a very happy-wretched time crying over their farewells 
all alone in the girl's cabin. The mother called down all 
sorts of blessings upon the Red Cross because this was the 
youngest of her four daughters, the last one to leave her 
and the only one she knew she should never see again. I 
patted them and I guess I cried over them a little, too, and 
I couldn't bear to lead the old lady away when the time 
came for her to go. 

" So, you see, it's not always an easy thing to get these 
girls off — I mean, it isn't always easy on one's heart. And 
it's made harder by the fact that many are so pathetically 
helpless. It is no fault of the husbands that they have had 
to sail away and leave the women behind, but it is a pity 
that all of them could not have left sufficient money with 
their wives to save them the unhappiness of having to 
borrow. But there was one party of wives which sailed for 
America in high spirits. Almost the entire membership of 
Company F of the 162nd Infantry — men from the 



178 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

Western Coast — had married here in England. They 
asked if they might not be sent home with their wives. So 
they were formed into a casual company in November, 
1918, and they remained at Knotty Ash until mid- April, 
and then they and their wives were assigned to a trans- 
port. I am sure no happier troopship ever crossed the 
Atlantic ! " 

And just then the second girl in the day's contingent, ap- 
peared in the doorway, halting at the threshold in timid 
wondering. 

" Come in, my dear, this is the fold/' Miss McFall sang 
out cheerfully. 



CHAPTEE X 

CROWNED HEADS AND MERRY MEN AT DARTFORD 

THERE were two memorable days in the history of 
Dartford Hospital. One was signalized by the visit 
of the King and Queen of England, the other by the sign- 
ing of the Armistice. The royal visit lasted two hours — a 
long time for so busy a sovereign as King George. The 
affairs incidental to November 11th lasted until everyone 
in the hospital was worn out — far too short a time in 
which to expand so much enthusiasm. 

Of course there were days made notable by the visits of 
other distinguished persons, among them Secretary Baker, 
accompanied by Major General John Biddle, commanding 
the American forces in Great Britain, and Brigadier Gen- 
eral E. A. Winter, the Chief Surgeon ; Mrs. Walter Hines 
Page, wife of the then Ambassador, and Samuel Gompers, 
president of the American Federation of Labor. But these 
lacked the spectacular appeal of royal visitors, they were 
" their own people," while a King was something quite 
new to democratic Americans, many of those at Dartford 
never until then having seen one. And, incidentally, if 
any of them looked for austerity and a forbidding mien 
they were disappointed. They learned about monarchs 
from him. King George shook hands and talked in win- 
ning cordiality with scores of wounded American soldiers 
and particularly asked to witness those activities the Red 
Cross was conducting for the men of Dartford. 

The royal visit occurred during the last part of October, 

1918. The King and Queen, accompanied by Princess 

Mary and one or two officers of the King's personal staff, 

motored from Buckingham Palace, arriving at Dartford 

about three o'clock in the afternoon. It was a brilliantly 

sunny day and the spacious grounds of the hillside hospital 

179 



180 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

were dotted with groups of convalescents — from a distance 
they looked like a flock of sheep on a rising meadow-land — 
when the royal car 'arrived at the main entrance gate. 
There it was met by a tiny hospital runabout which acted 
as pilot to the King's huge machine through the maze of 
avenues and lanes running between the straggling village 
of hutments erected as annexes to the main hospital build- 
ings. 

Knowing the intended hour of the visit — there is noth- 
ing in the world so swift as " hospital wireless " — unless 
it be its fellow, " camp wireless " — such of the American 
wounded as were permitted to roam about, and there were 
hundreds of them, all in hospital blue, had gathered along 
" the route of the procession." Bandaged, on crutches, 
some even in wheel-chairs, they ranged themselves on both 
sides of the roadways, cheering and waving their greeting 
to the visitors. The King, in the khaki uniform of a field 
marshal — one rarely saw him in " civvies/' as the British 
call it, even in London during the war — repeatedly raised 
his hand to his camp visor in answer, his pleased smile and 
the bow which accompanied it robbing the salute of all its 
military stiffness. The Queen, too, smiled as she bent for- 
ward in gracious acknowledgment of the reception. And 
so, between lines of men, recovering from wounds brought 
back from the red sectors in France, the party rode on to 
the headquarters of Colonel E. H. Fiske, the surgeon com- 
manding. There Colonel Fiske and a number of Army 
and Red Cross officers were presented to King George and 
Queen Mary, who a few minutes later were escorted, 
through a lane of cheering American soldiers, toward the 
ward buildings. But the King did not want to reach the 
wards before seeking out a soldier with whom to talk. He 
had gone not more than a half a dozen paces when his eye 
was caught by a youngster with a green and yellow ribbon 
on his breast, swinging along on a crutch. Two quick 
strides took him to the soldier's side and, in another, he had 
caught step with the crutch. 



CROWNED HEADS AT DARTFORD 181 

" Good afternoon," said the King. (" Just like that! " 
said the soldier in his next letter home.) And after that, 
with all the interest and lack of formality his captain or 
his surgeon might have shown, the soldier was questioned 
hy the King as they went slowly together, almost brushing 
elbows, about himself, his wounds, and the ribbon which 
had arrested the royal eye. The soldier was Sergeant E. J. 
Donnell, of Chicago, who had been badly torn up by 
machine-gun fire in " Chipply Wood " near Albert. As 
for the ribbon, that was for service on the Mexican border. 
To all that Donnell told him, King George listened atten- 
tively, now and then interjecting a comment or a question 
to lead the conversation on. 

While they were thus walking together the King sud- 
denly spied a row of wounded men on cots which had been 
carried from a neighboring ward and placed at the edge of 
a border of shade trees so that the patients might enjoy the 
play of the wind and the sunshine about them. Instantly 
he halted, gave Donnell's disengaged hand a firm grip with 
a word of God-speed, and, pausing an instant, led Queen 
Mary and the Princess toward the cots. He stopped be- 
side that of William Enkler, who haied from peaceful 
Ereeport, Long Island. Enkler was just about to turn to 
another page of a Sunday's " Pittsburgh Dispatch " when 
the King appeared. As he lowered the newspaper, King 
George took it up, with a quick glance at the date of it. 

" How did you get that paper so quickly ? " he asked. 
" It was published a very short time ago." 

" The American Ked Cross, Sir," Enkler replied. " It 
distributes newspapers in the hospital from all parts of the 
United States." 

" Do you come from Pittsburgh ? " 

" No, sir, I am from New York. I've read all my 
papers. We pass them on. This one arrived yesterday 
and it's been read about thirty times already ! " 

" You men like your newspapers from home, don't 
you ? " the King inquired. 



182 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

Enkler answered with a grin that they surely did, where- 
upon King George agreed that nothing was more natural 
and, pointing to the headlines of the paper, he added, " The 
news is better, don't you think, than it was a few months 
ago ? " 

This was Enkler' s turn to agree and for several minutes 
he and the King had a war dicussion that both evidently 
much enjoyed. As Enkler's nurse went past him after the 
royal party had moved on to the other cots he beckoned to 
her. 

" O Friend of Kings, what is it % " she asked with a sup- 
pressed smile and a surreptitious bow of humility. 

" Well, that's the first King I ever met, and all I've got 
to say is he's a real human being ! " 

Down the entire line of cots went the King and Queen, 
with a stop at each and words of greeting and inquiry. 
Thence the party entered the wards and, as before, greatly 
pleased the sick and wounded men with both the kindli- 
ness of their questioning and their hearty good wishes for 
rapid recovery. The men liked King George's frank, dem- 
ocratic manner of approaching them, his deep, resonant 
voice and his hearty way of saying, " Remember that you 
are in England, and if there is anything we can do for you 
at any time we want to know it, and shall take real pleasure 
in doing it." 

Not only in the wounded, was the Queen interested, but 
also in the American nurses and their training and 
methods, asking them many questions which showed 
marked knowledge of their humane, self-sacrificing pro- 
fession. She seemed to be especially intrigued when 
Private Ules Fox told her that he owed his life to his nurse. 
He had been wounded at Dickebusch, he said, and the 
quaint Southern melodiousness with which he pronounced 
the name — he came from Model, Tennessee — brought a 
delighted smile to the Queen's lips. Then they had carried 
him at last to Dartford and there his nurse had just 
" made " him get well. The nurse, Miss Nota Calligan, of 



CROWNED HEADS AT DARTFORD 183 

Weatherf ord, Texas, who was standing beside the cot blush- 
ing furiously, went a shade deeper as Queen Mary turned 
to her and held out a congratulatory hand. That, she said, 
was the sublime task of nurses, their highest achievement, 
to make live the men whose sufferings had overcome their 
wish to live. 

As the treatment and care of fractures and orthopedic 
cases has long been a hobby of King George, it was in the 
ward devoted to these, and to which the Bed Cross made 
frequent contributions of special boots and other foot gear, 
that he remained longest during the visit. He was 
especially attracted to the complicated contrivance of 
framework, pulleys, and weights employed in treating the 
badly fractured leg of Corporal C. A. Better, of Pittsburgh, 
and had it explained to him in detail, chatting with Better 
the while. Then he engaged himself for an equally long 
time over the apparatus in use upon Private George Lynch, 
of New York, who has been severely wounded at Dicke- 
busch and lay in what looked like a species of cantilever 
bridge. His Majesty was invariably desirous of learning 
of the comfort of the men and the readiness and fortitude 
with which they became accustomed to their appliances. 

With Lieutenant J. P. Kerrigan, of Rutland, Vt., whose 
right leg had been amputated below the knee as the re- 
sult of wounds from a bursting shell at Ypres, the King 
talked at length. He cited the case of a British soldier 
similarly handicapped, the progress of whose treatment at 
Queen Mary's Hospital in Boehampton he had watched 
with much interest. This soldier, he was glad to tell Ker- 
rigan, was now able to walk as comfortably as ever with a 
well-fitted artificial leg. 

It was at Boehampton, as the King knew, that the Amer- 
ican Bed Cross had provided a special omnibus service for 
the British soldiers reporting at the artificial limb work- 
shops for fittings or adjustments. Hitherto these men had 
been compelled to walk as best they could from the nearest 
rapid-transit station to the hospital, and frequently this 



184 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

part of the journey, which was up a hill, was a matter of 
no little difficulty to them. The establishment of the 'bus 
service, however, with sixteen daily trips between Roe- 
hampton and Barnes Common, had done away with the 
hardship. 

In every instance of his conversations with the American 
soldiers at Dartford, the King showed himself to be famil- 
iar with their engagements and familiar with the places at 
which they had been wounded. He proved to be a practical 
encyclopaedia of the war and often amazed the men with his 
knowledge of details. 

An American aviator, Charles Corse, of Minneapolis, 
who had been wounded by one of his own bombs, narrated 
an experience which visibly interested King George. Dur- 
ing a raid, Corse had swooped down to within twenty feet 
of the ground, bent upon making the target with the last 
bomb in the rack. He dropped the bomb and it exploded 
promptly, a dead hit, but a large fragment of the projectile 
flew upward and struck him as he soared away. In spite 
of the wound, Corse succeeded in piloting his " bus " to a 
good landing back of his own lines. After that he vaguely 
remembered being carried off to a hospital. 

King George regarded this as a highly unusual experi- 
ence and commented upon it by relating the singular ad- 
ventures of several British and French flying men with 
whom he had recently talked. 

The last hospital ward visited was that in which the shell- 
shock cases were under treatment. This had been dec- 
orated and furnished by a committee of Red Cross women 
only a short time before. The King and Queen manifested 
liveliest interest in the patients, talking with all those whose 
condition permitted and asking many questions of the at- 
tending physicians, especially regarding the case of a boy 
who, utterly unable to walk, played the piano for hours, to 
the great enjoyment of his fellows, and of another who was 
just learning to talk again after a silence of more than a 
month. Here, too, the King met Alfonso Delarenzo, a 



CROWNED HEADS AT DARTFORD 185 

New York sculptor who had enlisted in the hospital unit 
as a kitchen orderly, but had been rescued by his talents. 
Hie was now assigned to decorative work in the ward, his 
abilities being more needed for that than for exploitation 
in the arts culinary. His translation provoked a mirthful 
laugh and a very earnest congratulation from the King. 

From the wards, the royal party then went the rounds 
of the activities which the Bed Cross had established in con- 
nection with the hospital. The magnitude of the service 
it was possible thereby to render to the men greatly grati- 
fied the visitors. It was explained to them that the Red 
Cross supplemented the regular army supplies of drugs, 
medicines, surgical dressings, bed linen and clothing, 
especially such articles as socks, gloves, underwear, 
pajamas, bed jackets, bath robes and sweaters. In the 
Red Cross storehouse was shown to them the large stock of 
commodities for personal use which were distributed freely 
among the patients — the tooth brushes, tooth paste, combs, 
candy, razors and razor blades, soap, writing materials, 
chocolate, cigarettes, smoking tobacco, comfort kits and 
" housewives " with which they might do their own bits of 
mending and button sewing. 

At the " Hospital Exchange " which, in the few months 
the Red Cross operated it, transacted business to the tune 
of more than $7,000, they inspected the so-called " lux- 
uries," the things quite unobtainable from the hospital's 
stores, which were provided for the benefit of the staff and 
the convalescent patients. Then they came to the Recrea- 
tion Hut, which the Red Cross had erected at a cost of 
$12,000 for both personnel and patients. This was a large 
T-shaped building, steam-heated and lighted by gas, the 
cross bar being a general clubroom and the vertical stroke 
a combination theater and cinema. In the clubroom, 
emptied now by the greater attraction of the royal visit, 
were card tables and writing desks, a library of 500 
volumes, and racks containing the current English and 
American magazines and newspapers. 



186 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

This practically brought to an end the visit of the King 
and Queen and Princess Mary, but before leaving, the 
party returned for a moment to the hospital and signed the 
much-prized " Visitors' Book." Then it entered the wait- 
ing cars and rolled away on the return journey to Bucking- 
ham Palace. At the gates, as the cars passed through, a 
crowd of nearly a thousand convalescents cheered and 
waved their caps in Godspeed. During his two-hour visit 
the King had talked with eighty-three American soldiers 
from twenty-two different States. 

It was a Red Cross messenger who brought to Dartford 
the first news of the signing of the Armistice on the morn- 
ing of November eleventh. The small motor car which 
dashed up to the main hospital building with the tidings 
and announcing copies of the " Red Cross Daily Bulletin " 
— which, by the way, " scooped " all the London papers, 
being first in the field with the historic news — caused a 
hilarious stampede. Every patient who could hop, hobble, 
or crawl, every disengaged nurse or doctor, gathered around 
the machine or came to window or door. Dartford was one 
great cheer. Even the weary men in the wards, tortured as 
they were by their wounds, forgot everything in this instant 
of rejoicing. In Ward P., for instance, all the patients ap- 
parently went mad. By a chance, which they considered 
most fortunate, there were neither nurses nor orderlies 
about the place, so, accompanied by triumphant cries, 
shoes, slippers, pillows, everything that lay to hand went 
flying about the room. 

" Creeping barrage from the 75's of the American front 
line ! " roared a determined leader on one side, supporting 
himself against his cot with one leg and a crutch. The 
response to his command came in a hurricane fire of maga- 
zines, books, dressing gowns rolled in huge lumps, towels, 
and hastily knotted handkerchiefs. " Give Fritz merry 
hell ! " he cried in encouragement. 

"•Open up with the 440's ! " screamed the leader of the 
opposing forces on the opposite side of the ward. 



CROWNED HEADS AT DARTFORD 187 

"Boom! " he hurled a pillow far down the line of cots. 

The air was fairly alive with Ked Cross comfort bags, 
sweaters, woolen socks, and felt shoes in the counter fire 

"Now fellows, let's go! — Over the top to Berlin! • 
ordered the bandaged general of the American forces 
Three patients on crutches hopped as fast as they could 
across the wide aisle of the ward, yelping as they charged. 
They rung themselves upon the " enemy " cots and began 
a hearty pommeling of their occupants. Their neighbors, 
strapped in their cots, came to the rescue with a withering 
fire of Ked Cross hot water bags. 

" Give 'em the bayonet ! " yelled one legless man, feint- 
ing thrusts with his crutch. m m 

" Clean up the dug-outs! " cried another, using his one 
remaining arm to pound with a pillow an adversary who 
had pulled the bed-clothes over his head. 

The battle would have gone on to exhaustion if a startled 
dove of peace in the uniform of a nurse had not come into 
the ward just then. She signed the armistice and hurried 
the grinning men back into their cots m short order. 
There were no casualties, save for a few scrapes and 
bruises, but the nurse was busy a half-hour collecting the 
" ammunition " and restoring it to its proper owners. As 
an instance of the native cheerfulness of the American 
wounded, this incident is noteworthy. For the foregoing 
" battle " occurred in a ward whose every patient had lost 
either an arm or a leg. t 

At that time the men at Dartford were mainly those 01 
the 27th and 30th American Divisions which had been 
through the tremendous fighting that broke the boasted 
Hindenburg Line between Cambrai and St. Quentm during 
the last days of September and the first days of October, 
1918. The men had therefore been in hospital only a short 
time when the blood and iron of Germany's military 
power dissolved into ink with which to sign an armistice. 
As soon as they caught breath after their first whirlwind 
of enthusiasm, fifteen hundred of them — half the popula- 



188 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

tion of the hospital — formed in line, with an American 
flag and a Eed Cross standard at its head, and, cheering and 
making noises upon anything that would add to the din, 
marched and counter-marched through the grounds. To 
add a costume touch to the festivities, many wore flags 
across their breasts, others turned their jackets inside out 
and some had Red Cross comfort bags on their heads. A 
large number were in bright-patterned bathrobes, just as 
they had swarmed out from the wards. And well up in 
the line were several convalescents, still unable to walk but 
mighty at cheering, who were pushed along in their wheel- 
chairs by sturdier comrades. 

When the entire area of the hospital reservation had 
been covered the paraders obtained permission to march 
through the big German prison camp, a few hundred yards 
away down the hill. There they encountered a rejoicing 
no less boisterous and sincere than their own. The prison- 
ers had been told of the Armistice at practically the same 
hour that the news was brought to the Americans and they 
began celebrating forthwith. Their camp orchestra played 
" The Star Spangled Banner " and they, too, had a parade 
with a tin-basin band in the vanguard as it went about the 
barbed-wired-encireled compound. Immediately following 
the " band " was a " camel," contrived of two Germans 
bearing a mattress upon boards spanning their shoulders, 
the man in front carrying a long-handled mop. Over all, 
small dark blankets were thrown, one fastened about the 
mop-head, and a rider lifted into his precarious saddle, 
made doubly so by the antics of the steed. The German 
sergeant-major of the camp, constituted himself the 
" camel's " Arab leader, with mustache and beard of soot 
from the kitchen chimney, a colored handkerchief about his 
neck and bare above the waist save for the improvised 
" bournous " of a blanket. As he led his charge about the 
enclosure he shouted alternately, " Hoch, Camile ! " and 
" Hoch die Republic ! " to the great glee of the prisoners. 



CROWNED HEADS AT DARTFORD 189 

The arrival of the Americans in their camp was re- 
soundingly cheered by the Germans who lined up to greet 
them. They took off their little skull caps and waved them 
as the flags went by. They gave every evidence of thank- 
fulness that the dreadful business was at an end. 

This dramatic encounter between the Germans and the 
Americans appealed particularly to the Red Cross moving- 
picture man, who had hurried up from London Head- 
quarters to record Dartford's day. As permission to enter 
the enclosure for any such purpose as photography had to 
be obtained from the British authorities, a messenger was 
rushed to the city in a Red Cross car and back again with 
the properly signed order. 

Great was the delight of the prisoners to disport them- 
selves before the camera and many feet of film were taken 
to perpetuate the meeting and the unique celebration by 
victors as well as vanquished. The festivities caused no 
end of surprise to the Cockney driver of the Red Cross car. 

" Blimy, if these 'ere Hamericans don't go a-torkin' to 
the bleedin' 'Uns an' a-givin' of 'em cigarettes, all friendly 
like. An' larst week they was a-killin' of each other ! " 

The camera man ground away until luncheon time and 
then stopped, although the Germans begged for more pic- 
tures. When he returned to the enclosure early in the 
afternoon no one but the sergeant-major was visible. He 
explained to the Red Cross men that as the prisoners were 
paid in accord with the amount of work they did in the 
camp, they would have lost money had they stayed to be 
photographed. This was too much for the Cockney driver. 

" Syvin' for to set up a shop in Lunnon after the war, 
wot ? " And he swore and spat upon the ground. 

None of the German officers in the camp would submit 
to portraiture. They were polite, or nearly so, but very 
firm. Some said that they were not in their regular uni- 
forms, others that they were too shabby, but all presented 
excuses. One haughty Prussian major drew himself up, 



190 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

"Z am celebrating no armistice ! I do not recognize the 
armistice nor the Government which has agreed to it. I 
am still at war ! " 

But the parade did not by any means bring to an end 
Dartford's celebration of the Armistice. The patients still 
had a fund of enthusiasm for expenditure. So a sham 
battle was arranged and fought in a large field near the 
hospital. It was not only in celebration of the day but 
commemorative in many ways of the past that these men 
had played in shattering the Hindenburg Line. There 
were no guns and no powder, of course, but it was carried 
out with much explosive laughter on the part of both con- 
testants and spectators, several hundred of the latter being 
on the " side lines " to cheer on the warriors. 

To provide forces for the engagement the convalescents 
were formed in two detachments, one to represent the at- 
tacking Americans, the other the Germans. Volunteers 
for the German side being decidely scarce, conscription had 
to be resorted to, the wages being two bars of Red Cross 
chocolate. To distinguish themselves the " Germans " 
wore their caps inside out. Many of the men on both sides 
were on crutches, the " tanks " were the severely wounded 
men in wheel-chairs, propelled to the attack by their fellow 
convalescents; the hand-grenades were mud-balls and the 
ambulances wheel-barrows. 

After the " Germans " had taken up their position and 
signaled their readiness, the Americans attacked, preceded 
by forty " tanks " propelled as rapidly as the comfort of 
the patients and uneven ground permitted. The infantry, 
some on crutches, some steadying themselves with canes, 
went " over the top " with a yell and charged the defenses. 

The " casualties " afforded the spectators great amuse- 
ment. The " dead men " refused to stay dead and climbed 
into the barrow ambulances, insisting upon being carried 
back into action. Several of the most severe cases were 
those of men suffering from attacks of what the fighters 
called " laughing gas." 



CROWNED HEADS AT DARTFORD 191 

After an exciting hand-to-hand fight which, from a dis- 
tance, with crutches and canes waving in the air, reminded 
one of a " Keystone " battle, the u Germans " threw up 
their hands, cried " Kamerad ! " — and the " Line " was 
broken. 

Then came a mirthful exhibition of grenade-throwing. 
A nest of " Germans "in a " shell hole " had to be 
" cleaned up" and a party of Americans in command of a 
lieutenant was sent in to do the bloody work. From the 
shelter of a clump of bushes, the Americans crept upon 
their foes and suddenly assailed them with a rain of mud- 
ball grenades. They hurled them into the shell-hole until 
all save one of the " Fritzies " had been declared killed. 
This last one was " rushed," captured and made to kiss the 
American flag while the audience roared with merriment. 

It was late in the afternoon when the warfare came to an 
end, and then both sides adjourned, very amicably, very 
willingly and very tired, to the hospital for tea. 

Secretary Baker's visit, in the autumn of 1918, a short 
time before that of King George and Queen Mary, included 
his service as a Red Cross " helper," because in his journey 
through the wards and afterward on the lawns, he dis- 
tributed a large quantity of Eed Gross cigarettes and choco- 
late to the men with whom he talked. Later he delivered 
an address to more than live hundred of the patients in the 
hospital Concert Hall, where one of the Red Cross musi- 
cal entertainments was in progress at the time of his unex- 
pected arrival. In the officers' mess, where he went for tea, 
it surprised and interested him to find in an issue of the 
Red Cross Bulletin a picture of himself talking with a sol- 
dier cousin whom he had run across in the course of a visit 
to one of the camps in the neighborhood of Winchester, and 
also a long article devoted to a description of his tour of in- 
spection of American military posts and hospitals. It was 
at the conclusion of this tour that Secretary Baker wrote 
to the American Red Cross in London : 

" On this trip I have received fresh and noteworthy 



192 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

evidence of the astonishing efficiency of Red Cross opera- 
tions in France and England. I have been delighted to 
see how much the American Red Cross has done to weld 
the hearts of the Allied people together. " 

The Red Cross found another enthusiastic " helper " in 
Mr. Samuel Gompers, when the president of the American 
Federation of Labor visited Dartford during the presence 
of the American Labor Mission in England in August, 
1918. Mr. Gompers was accompanied on this visit by 
Colonel Endieott, the Red Cross Commissioner, and Lieu- 
tenant Colonel F. A. Washburn, of the U. S. Army Medical 
Corps, and with them made an extended tour of the wards. 
In a signed account of his day at Dartford, written for 
the Red Cross Bulletin, Mr. Gompers said : 

" Americans I met from almost every State in the Union, 
many of whom I had seen or known before. And never 
have I been so proud to meet my countrymen. Our visit 
was quite unannounced and the boys were surprised and 
pleased. I walked about among them, handing them 
cigarettes, American flags, and comfort bags made by 
women in America for the Red Cross to dispose of to our 
boys wherever they may be. It was a great experience and 
touched me deeply. Every little while I could feel a lump 
come in my throat. I just couldn't help it. 

" The Red Cross had sent out with us a motor car full 
of things which we distributed. The cigarettes were from 
two shipments sent over here by the people of Providence, 
R.I., and by the Rotary Club, of Honolulu, Hawaii, and 
each package had a little card by which the recipient could 
acknowledge the gift. It was a pleasure for me to hand 
these gifts to the men. They came from America and I 
thought of every one as a link between these soldiers and the 
mothers, wives and sweethearts of America. 

" If the Red Cross did nothing more than distribute 
these things it would be worth while. I am a member of 
the Red Cross in America, just like so many millions of 
other Americans. In the last drive I helped to raise some 



CROWNED HEADS AT DARTFORD 193 

of that giant fund, and I expect to lift my voice for it 
again in the next drive. I shall be able to speak first-hand 
of its work for our men." 

After his ronnd of the wards, Mr. Gompers talked on 
the lawn with a number of the convalescents. The grow- 
ing crowd eventually called upon him for a " speech," which 
he delivered briefly as, what he called, " a message from the 
folks at home," and every word of it was intently followed 
by his impromptu audience. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE MIRACLE OF ROMSEY AND SARISBURY COURT 

IN" the annals of the American Red Cross in Great 
Britain there are two names which stand out in sharp 
silhouette against the background of its varied and increas- 
ing activities. These are Romsey and Sarisbury Court. 
They mean a great deal to the Red Cross. The army will 
never forget them. Linked in no uncertain fashion by the 
exactions and difficulties common to all undertakings in 
time of war, Romsey and Sarisbury stand for an un- 
paralleled determination and ingeniousness and a conquest 
of seemingly unsurmountable obstacles. As names, they 
represent two hospitals which the Red Cross created in 
England for the critical needs of the army; as hospitals, 
they represent institutions which in equipment and effi- 
ciency acknowledged no superior of their kind throughout 
the British Isles. To the English military, who knew so 
well how war restrictions could hamper even the most ur- 
gent enterprises, they were concrete evidence that the 
American Red Cross could obey every regulation yet 
" carry on " through thick and thin. 

There was a large American rest camp at Romsey, lying 
six miles from Winchester, which had been taken over from 
the British in a very incomplete state. It had a capacity of 
7,000 troops and came into use when Morn Hill could no 
longer accommodate the incessantly arriving American de- 
tachments. A great deal of construction work was im- 
mediately necessary there as the British had used it only as 
a (i temporary camp," never intending it for the more per- 
manent and wider use to which the Americans were com- 
pelled to put it. There was, for instance, a tent hospital 
which had been adequate enough for its British use, that of 

194 



THE MIRACLE OF ROMSEY 195 

holding patients for only a few hours at most, until am- 
bulances could gather and convey them to the nearest mili- 
tary hospital. It was a row of tents along one of the broad 
camp streets equipped not with cots but with straw ticks 
laid upon boards raised about half a foot from the flooring. 
For a few hours' occupancy during the pleasant English 
spring and summer such a hospital imposed no hardships, 
but was out of the question in an English winter. There- 
fore the necessity of providing a big waterproof hospital 
was obvious and urgent because, in many cases, as has been 
already pointed out, the system of the American soldier did 
not take kindly to the overseas voyage nor the novelties of 
English climate. 

There being so great an amount of construction and re- 
construction already upon its hands to fit the camp for its 
new services, the army appealed to the Red Cross for aid, 
specifically for a hospital structure. In response, Colonel 
Endicott, the Commissioner for Great Britain, visited 
Romsey to learn the army's plans and rather definitely its 
needs. One of the first questions he asked was whether the 
camp was to be permanently occupied, as this would 
naturally govern the provisions of the Red Cross. He was 
told that this was what the army intended and, further- 
more, as there would always be five or six thousand 
troops in the camp awaiting transportation to the front, a 
hospital of at least 250 beds would be necessary. Colonel 
Endicott's answer for the Red Cross was, as usual, instantly 
forthcoming: it would erect a hospital capable of fulfill- 
ing all such requirements and all possible emergencies. 
Before that, however, the Red Cross would provide 
thorough equipment for the tent hospital which the army 
must continue to use until the new structure should be com- 
pleted. On the following day a large consignment of beds, 
blankets, mattresses, bedcovering, and similar hospital ap- 
pliances was dispatched from the Red Cross warehouses in 
London. Also the Red Cross set up at once a warm, com- 
fortable hut for the examination of patients. 



196 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

This happened in the spring, England's finest season, one 
for which she might almost be forgiven her winters and 
there were months of fine weather ahead, so the task of the 
Ked Cross in constructing a building of the dimensions re- 
quired seemed not to be unusually difficult. But soon was 
the awakening. It came when the Ked Cross cast about for 
labor and materials. British labor, save in discouragingly 
small units, was unobtainable as the Government at that 
time required practically every ounce of the Nation's man- 
power. As for the building-material market, it had few 
doors open and these scarcely more than ajar. In such 
circumstances the Eed Cross had but one hopeful recourse, 
the services of the army itself, the labor of its own men. 
In this the army was more than willing to comply but it, 
too, was in a quandary. It explained that it could provide 
workers only from labor battalions during their brief and 
always uncertain intervals of halting at Romsey. And as 
these battalions were at that time being concentrated with 
all speed upon the construction of great aerodromes in the 
eastern and southern parts of England, notably at Eastleigh 
in Hants and Emsworth, Ford Junction and Tangmere in 
Sussex, few men, scarcely more than fifty or seventy-five at 
a time, could be promised for the work. 

But the promise sufficed and the Red Cross went into the 
building market in search of material with which to 
build not a swiftly-contrived temporary structure, difficult 
enough to erect, but a strong, solid, permanent hospital — 
a labor worthy of Hercules. While it was seeking concrete, 
slate, stone, anything that might be obtained in the neces- 
sary amounts, a lieutenant in the army who had been an 
architect in Rhode Island, telegraphed to Red Cross Head- 
quarters that he had obtained an option on a quantity of 
brick, and would that do ? It not only would do, but did, 
for from the moment the receiver went back on the hook, 
Romsey Hospital became a brick hospital ! And this gave 
it much distinction in the days to come. Hitherto such 
constructions, however substantial and adequate, being 



THE MIRACLE OF ROMSEY 197 

temporary, had always looked the part. Therefore it was 
not to be wondered at that subsequent visitors commented 
upon the Red Cross buildings at Eomsey with the re- 
mark, " You Americans must expect the war to last a long 
time when you put up structures like that." The reply 
of the commanding officer was informative and conclusive : 
" We hope it won't last long," he said, " but whether it 
does or does not, we must have comfortable hospitals for 
our men and we and the Eed Cross believe that the best 
is none too good for them," 

Although every one was interested, vitally, one may say, 
in speeding the Eomsey task, military conditions made 
this impossible. Working squads were sometimes detailed 
for periods of two or even three weeks, but in many in- 
stances they had to be withdrawn after only two or three 
days of employment. There might, and frequently did, 
ensue even a week's delay until another labor battalion 
should arrive and another detail of men be assigned to 
take up the task where it had been so abruptly dropped. 
Yet this was the only method by which the thing could 
be done, and so was the Eomsey Hospital built. However, 
looking back upon even the most discouraging hours when 
work was at an utter standstill, walls half finished, walls 
just begun, material lying in dead, undisturbed piles, 
there is prideful satisfaction in the knowledge that all the 
labor on Eomsey hospital was done by American soldiers. 
For many it was their first " bit " in the cause for which 
they had come so far, and they went about it with a 
whistling, singing disregard of obstacles. All the lumber 
used for the roof and the interior trimming was cut forty 
miles away in the New Forest (" New " means dating back 
to the Saxon Kings ! ) , sawed in small, portable mills, 
and taken out in American motor trucks as fast as it was 
made ready. 

Fortunately, the services of part of a " construction 
company " were obtained to lay the concrete, and direct 
certain phases of allied building operations. Many of the 



198 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

men in this detachment had been contractors and high- 
grade artisans well over draft age who were earning large 
wages at home before their enlistment. At Romsey, how- 
ever, for the army's stipulated " thirty a month and 
rations," they made concrete, pushed wheelbarrows, loaded 
and unloaded trucks, did everything in fact, to advance 
the work. The concrete laying was, for a time, a grave 
problem, that is, until the Red Cross discovered and pur- 
chased an American mixing machine and sent it out to 
Romsey. A great deal of extra labor might have been 
saved in the early days of the work if the Red Cross had 
been able to purchase what contractors call an ordinary 
" grading scoop," but such was the condition of the market 
that there was not one to be found in all England. For 
this reason it was necessary in leveling to take out all the 
earth with picks, shovels and barrows instead of by the 
quicker and simpler method of horse-drawn graders. 
Nevertheless, the work went forward slowly and surely, and 
course by course the walls arose. To give the exterior 
of the buildings a touch of distinction, the mason details 
" raked out " the seams between the bricks, leaving the 
latter in relief, this method of brick-laying being seldom 
seen in England. It was only natural that the soldier 
squads should take great pride in this hospital of theirs. 
So skillfully and untiringly did the construction and labor 
units perform their task that at the end of four months, 
in June, 1918, the Red Cross was able to deliver Romsey 
Hospital to the army medical authorities, ready for oc- 
cupancy with an initial capacity of 105 beds. The in- 
terior had been finished with the same care as that given 
to the artistic outer walls, the wards were long and roomy, 
and lighted by wide, bright windows. There were com- 
pletely appointed operating and X-ray rooms, smaller 
wards for special cases, diet kitchens, a milk-pasteurizing 
plant, and gas and electric equipment throughout. It was 
truly a model hospital. 

Nothing better illustrates the adaptability and ver- 



THE MIRACLE OF ROMSEY 199 

satility of the American soldier than this small hospital. 
It may not seem a feat, to construct a brick hospital in 
four months, but if one takes into consideration that it was 
erected solely by the labor of troops which halted for a 
brief time on their way to Prance, that adequate tools were 
sometimes unprocurable, that not infrequently the avail- 
able details succeeded one another at two-day intervals, 
and that there were, in all, weeks when no work could 
be done, it must be accounted a real achievement. The 
passing men of the rest camp, even those whose services 
lasted no more than a day or two, helped the Red Gross 
to write an ineffaceable record at Romsey. In time, as the 
buildings were finished, the hospital grew to 220 beds and 
in December, 1918, its fixed capacity was 260 patients, 
although at the height of the influenza epidemic it had 
accommodated more than three hundred. 

But the hospital was only the beginning of Red Cross 
construction work at Romsey. When the Americans took 
the camp the only facilities for bathing were comprised in 
a draughty shed with canvas sides. Here was installed 
a bathing appliance known as the " petrol-tin system." 
It is a system for the man who will " try anything once " — 
and never again. It gives not so much a bath as an ex- 
perience. Two old gasoline cans were suspended from the 
roof of the " structure " and the man desiring, that is, 
determined, to bathe himself, climbed a ladder and first 
filled one can with cold water, the other with hot. Then, 
getting beneath the contraption, he pulled the strings at- 
tached to the cans, tipping them and deluging himself 
according to his dexterity and agility. If he missed him- 
self with the tins he had to try all over again. By this 
process only a few score of men could get through with this 
aquatic sport in the course of a morning and it involved 
about as much labor as a " hike," so bathing at Romsey 
was in a fair way to become a lost art. Just at that 
moment, however, the Red Cross stepped into the situa- 
tion and began a second task, that of erecting suitable 



200 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

bath houses for the entire camp. And as brick was the 
only material to be obtained, these buildings were made 
part of the architectural scheme which had been com- 
menced with the hospital. Three large houses were con- 
structed, equipped with showers as complete and sanitary 
as those of any gymnasium in America and capable of pro- 
viding baths, hot or cold, for eight thousand men a day. 
So, every morning, after these were completed, hundreds 
of men clad in raincoats and shoes and little else, filed 
from tents and barracks to the showers, and there was not 
a man-Jack among them who didn't bless the Red Cross. 

At one end of each bath-house was a laundry where the 
men, each provided with soap, a tub and a washboard, 
cleansed their clothing, and indeed, came to fancy them- 
selves quite a bit over the way they " did up " their shirts 
and things. 

A dental hut, recreation buildings for privates and non- 
coms, clubs for officers and nurses, canteens — these were 
other works of the Red Cross at Romsey and the best testi- 
mony of what its representatives had to do is to be found 
in the following extracts, taken at random from the weekly 
reports of the officer in charge: 

The influenza epidemic struck this camp just as we were ready 
to open our new hospital. We rushed the final work and were 
able to take care of all the patients as they came. Fortunately, 
the Red Cross storehouses were well stocked with blankets, 
pneumonia jackets, pajamas, towels and all the other things 
which were needed in this emergency. Every man of the 
Red Cross staff worked eighteen hours a day during the time 
of high pressure and did everything from helping to undress 
patients to carrying in supplies. 

The Red Cross has now assisted in 500 cases of American 
soldiers unable for various reasons to get their back pay. 

We had in camp here this week approximately 100 transient 
women of the United States Army, the majority being tele- 
phone girls and nurses. They were housed by the Red Cross 
and we did all we could to make their stay comfortable. They 



THE MIRACLE OF ROMSEY 201 

used the Red Cross reading room at Abbotswood in the eve- 
nings and had at all times the use of the Red Cross Nurses' Club 
in the camp. 

The refitting and interior work on the Officers' Club is now 
completed, and all permanent officers, both of the camp and hos- 
pital, are now quartered in rooms on the upper floors, while the 
lower floors include mess-halls, lounges, reading and writing 
rooms, not only for the permanent officers of the camp, but also 
for the scores of transients who are found in the camp every 
day. 

The Nurses' Club has overflowed its old quarters and a piece 
of land adjacent has been leased on which a large hut is being 
erected to accommodate the overflow. We are bearing all the 
expenses in connection with this house. 

The signing of the Armistice has put a stop to the construc- 
tion and equipment work on our new canteen building for troops 
arriving at Romsey Rest Camp. This would have opened in 
about a fortnight, with equipment for canteening about 2,000 
troops at one time. 

Red Cross activities at Romsey were discontinued on 
December 11, 1918, when the camp was evacuated by the 
American Army. Immediately the British War Office, 
recognizing the excellence of the Red Cross structures, 
asked if it might not take them over in connection with 
the demobilization of British troops, requesting that a sale 
price be fixed. The reply of Colonel Endicott was, in ef- 
fect : " The Red Cross will accept whatever sum you de- 
cide as measuring their worth to you." As the Red Cross 
owned all the buildings in question but not the land on 
which they stood, it was agreed that the British should oc- 
cupy them and appoint a commission to decide upon a price 
after a thorough appraisal of structures and equipment. 
So the British went in on March 1, 1919, for a period of 
one year, after which they will dispose of them for the 
account of the American Red Cross. The original cost of 
the buildings and their fittings was £14,000, approximately 
$70,000. 



202 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

At Sarisbury Court, the Red Cross undertook its most 
ambitious project. It determined to make this the largest 
American hospital in Great Britain. 

The resolution was born of one of the gravest military 
emergencies of the war. Germany, with the supreme 
power of her armies, was steadily driving toward the 
coveted Channel ports. The British, and the Americans 
brigaded with them, were striving to stay this apparently 
irresistible advance with all their strength and tactics of 
defense and counter-attack. By hundreds the wounded 
were coming back. The startling German successes 
aroused the fear that many hospitals in France and Bel- 
gium might have to be evacuated. The British authorities 
could no longer spare institutions for the expected inflow 
of American casualties. Already Hursley Park, Ports^ 
mouth and Tottenham Hospitals had been thus relin- 
quished; all others and more would be sorely needed by 
the British. The American Army was in extremity; it 
must have, and without long delay, hospital resources well 
in excess of those then provided or contemplated by both 
its Medical Corps and the Red Cross. 

What was more natural than that in such a plight it 
should turn again to the Red Cross ? It asked if the Com- 
mission for Great Britain could not in some way and as 
soon as possible obtain, provide, create — do something 
to give it a hospital near Southampton, the main port to 
be used in bringing the American wounded from France. 

It was, perhaps, not an easy request to make, for its 
magnitude was obvious. As for fulfillment under exist- 
ing conditions, so well exemplified at Romsey, — that was 
almost dismaying because the army made it clear from the 
beginning that what it wanted was a hospital capable 
of taking care of thousands of patients — thousands, mind 
you! 

But the Red Cross took up the burden with characteris- 
tic eagerness and hope and sent representatives to search 
the countryside for miles around the seaport. Amd, at last, 



THE MIRACLE OF ROMSEY 203 

after many days, the place was found. It was in sunny 
Hampshire, an estate of 186 acres on Southampton water, 
six miles from the port in a bend of the River Hamble — 
Sarisbury Court. On a rise, above rolling farmland, 
meadow and wood, stood the Manor House, a severe Tudor 
pile in brick and stone, massive, three stories in height 
with fifty rooms. It had been built about thirty-five years 
before and in the mind of the owner there had always 
been a lurking, philanthropic idea of converting it some 
day into a sort of school for boys. Its adaptability to 
hospital purposes was instantly and encouragingly ap- 
parent, In addition, the estate was well-equipped with 
smaller buildings — stable, garages, greenhouses and cot- 
tages. 

So enthusiastic over its possibilities were the officers 
of the Medical Corps that the Red Cross at once negotiated 
for a lease of the estate. The owner, however, positively 
refused to entertain any such proposition; only through 
outright sale would he part with Sarisbury Court. There- 
upon, the Red Cross bargained for purchase. The price 
at which the owner held the property was so unusually 
high that, for a time, the Red Cross considered requesting 
the British War Office to commandeer it. Well aware 
that this lay within the province of the Government, the 
owner, evidently getting wind of such a move, promptly 
lowered his figures and the Red Cross took an option on 
the estate. 

Just at this time, Eastertide, 1918, Mr. Henry P. Davi- 
son, Chairman of the War Council of the Red Cross, was 
in England upon a tour of inspection of the organization's 
many undertakings. Accompanied by General Ireland, 
Chief Surgeon of the American Expeditionary Eorces in 
Erance; General Winter, Chief Surgeon of Base Section 
3, which was England; Major James H. Perkins, Red 
Cross Commissioner for Europe, and Colonel Endicott, he 
visited Sarisbury Court. A round of the Manor House 
and the extensive acreage of the estate convinced the army 



204 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

surgeons of Salisbury's suitability for the purposes de- 
sired. Several times during the tour about the place, 
Mr. Davison asked the surgeons if the establishment and 
equipment there of such a hospital would solve certain 
vital problems of the Army Medical Corps and was so 
assured in every reply. Upon receiving the last one, he 
turned to Colonel Endicott and in eight words ended the 
discussion : " When you return to London exercise your 
option." In this way Sarisbury Court came into Red 
Cross hands at a cost of £26,500. 

At first glance this may seem to have been a high price, 
but it must be remembered that this was the hour of 
emergency, when the only consideration which could be 
allowed to prevail was the duty owed to suffering American 
soldiers. The ranking army authorities not only sanc- 
tioned the action, but Brigadier General Winter wrote the 
Red Cross to say that, pursuant to verbal instructions from 
the Chief Surgeon, A. E. F., transmitting, in turn, the in- 
structions of General Pershing, he was justified in stating 
that all financial obligations incidental to the hospitaliza- 
tion project at Sarisbury Court would be assumed by the 
United States Government. So urgent was the army need 
that it asked " that the extension of this hospital be made 
by the use of tents and that arrangements be made to com- 
plete the more permanent construction before 'the cold 
weather." Also it was requested that the Red Cross " im- 
mediately proceed to install 3,000 beds if possible." 

As the army's first specific need was a tent-hospital, 
this was the initial work the Red Cross undertook at 
Sarisbury, and although it delayed by about three weeks 
the opening of the more permanent plant, it at least pro- 
vided the Medical Corps with means of caring for the 
wounded who were expected to flow into England in July 
and August. 

The seventy Bessoneau-type tents which composed it 
were twenty by forty feet each in size, were double-roofed 
for insulation, had side-wall windows and were in every 



THE MIRACLE OF ROMSEY 205 

way suited to the purpose. They were set up near the 
Manor House in units of three to make continuous wards, 
each unit yielding 45 beds. This tent-hospital is deserv- 
ing of especial mention as an illustration of the manner in 
which the American Red Cross was, during the war, re- 
peatedly called upon to make preparations for emergencies 
and that it could respond at any time with a well-equipped 
" base hospital " of canvas capable, as this one at Saris- 
bury, of accommodating 1,000 patients and admitting of 
indefinite expansion. 

Meantime, however, work had been begun upon the con- 
version of the Manor House, including the installation of 
adequate heating and plumbing systems, the rearrange- 
ment of rooms to provide a total ward capacity of 180 cots 
for severe cases, and an enlargement of kitchen facilities 
sufficient to prepare food for 1,800 people. This task, 
begun about the middle of June, was completed in the 
first week in August, to the expressed satisfaction of the 
Chief Surgeon of the base who inspected it. 

The adjustment of the Manor, the provision of tem- 
porary structures incident to a tent-hospital, the setting 
up of a canteen composed of two Red Cross hutments 
which had seen service during the South African War, 
had been comparatively easy of accomplishment, but now 
the Red Cross came face to face with a labor to try men's 
souls, the creation of the great permanent hospital which 
was to distinguish Sarisbury Court. The plans which 
had been made contemplated ten acres of substantial ward 
buildings, administration offices, quarters for a large staff 
of doctors, nurses and orderlies; laboratories, storehouses, 
and other structures essential to an institution of 3,000 
beds. The Red Cross knew very well what it had encount- 
ered at Romsey, the delays, the disappointmen»ts ; but it 
tried not to think of them, bearing in mind only its deter- 
mination to make Sarisbury the largest and finest Ameri- 
can hospital in Great Britain, and to complete it by the 
early spring of 1919. 



206 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

Sarisbury, as a problem of construction, differed con- 
spicuously from Romsey; it offered no opportunity to ob- 
tain the services of passing troops and therefore must be 
built by British labor. This was a difficulty only equaled 
by the perennial scarcity of material, another uncherished 
memory of Romsey. 

But just at this time, when the perplexities of the Bed 
Cross were most harassing, Fate brought a providential 
anti-climax. The expected German operations which 
would have brought hundreds of American wounded to 
Englarid, did not occur, and, mercifully, the great city 
of tents was never populated by wounded. At all events, 
it had been in readiness, thoroughly equipped with a hos- 
pital unit of thirty-nine surgeons and 107 nurses from Lex- 
ington, Kentucky, under Colonel Leonard S. Hughes, in 
occupation, and did its bit during the influenza epidemic. 

As the emergency which kept the entire Medical Corps 
so long on tiptoe had been averted, the Bed Cross did 
not begin constructing the Sarisbury ward buildings until 
July 1st. But when it did, difficulties dogged every step. 
Existing roads had to be repaired or new ones cut to facili- 
tate the transportation of material and supplies, not only 
from the nearest railway station, Sarisbury Green, a mile 
and a quarter away, but also to all parts of the extensive 
hospital site; the avenue of approach was widened to per- 
mit ambulances to pass ; a channel had to be dredged in the 
River Hamble so that barges of coal and building material 
from Southampton and Portsmouth might reach a jetty 
on the estate, and it was necessary to set up a 300-yard 
aerial ropeway to convey these commodities from the jetty 
to the ward reservation. Lacking a construction bureau, 
the Bed Cross was again compelled to seek the services 
of the British engineer who, the year before, had designed 
and superintended the work at Mossley Hill. 

The difficulties encountered at Sarisbury deserve re- 
counting in certain detail, not only because they were sur- 
mounted, one and all, but for the " deadly parallel " they 



THE MIRACLE OF ROMSEY 207 

afforded to a similar undertaking of less magnitude made 
by the British, in which they were unable to accomplish 
what they had planned. But of that, later. 

Nearly every kind of material used in building Saris- 
bury Hospital, metal particularly, was controlled by the 
British Government's system of priorities. This, estab- 
lished in 1915> was instituted for the purpose of restrain- 
ing the supply of materials and manufactured articles to 
persons who, offering financial inducements, could obtain 
those goods to the detriment of important war work. 
Therefore <the Priority Department of the Ministry of 
Munitions, taking over control of supplies and raw ma- 
terials and manufactures, laid down three classifications: 
Class A, definite work of the war; Class B, incidental 
war work and the maintenance of industry; Class C, all 
work not included in the two foregoing. Class A was sub- 
divided into grades of priority known as PI, P2, P3, P4 
and P5. Under these classifications, the controlled in- 
dustries were allowed to supply raw material or manu- 
factured goods only in the order of priority. For example, 
work classified as Al must be finished before A2 work 
could be undertaken. Similarly, Pi must be completed 
before the assumption of P2. 

War hospitals in Great Britain were, save under special 
circumstances, classified as Class A — P4, and this ap- 
plied to all manufactures in connection with hospital con- 
struction or equipment. But through the good fortune 
which watched over the American Red Cross during all its 
service in Great Britain, it not only managed, somehow or 
other, to purchase material for Sarisbury in Class A — P3, 
but upon one occasion got them in P2. This was note- 
worthy indeed, for PI and P2 were almost exclusively re- 
served for vital munitions of war — cannon, rifles, am- 
munition, battleships and other shipping. 

In war time, planning was one thing, execution quite 
another, and although the Eed Cross squeezed through the 
very narrow crack of priority doors, material in quantity 



208 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

was difficult of procurement and ingenuity was almost 
exhausted in making the Sarisbury Court estate do its 
share. Prom its forests, timber was cut and made into 
boards by portable sawmills, a pit in the woods near the 
Manor supplied sand and gravel which was pushed along 
a one-man-power railway laid to the same concrete mixers 
which the Ked Cross had so successfully used at Romsey. 

England was taking able-bodied men right and left for 
her armies so labor difficulties at Sarisbury were increas- 
ing. They ranged from scarcity of workmen to strikes. 
A large construction force was demanded for the proper 
and expeditious progress of such an undertaking as Saris- 
bury, a plan calling for the erection of eighteen double ward 
buildings, each of a capacity of 160 patients, two isola- 
tion wards, not to mention such appurtenances as quarters 
containing more than 1,000 beds for doctors, nurses, 
orderlies and women servants and the electric and power 
plants and a roadway lighting system throughout the 
estate. 

The climate of England demanded buildings not of hap- 
hazard construction, but strong and solid, impervious to 
cold and dampness. Skilled artisans, to say nothing of 
numbers, were what the Red Cross needed, but it had to 
content itself with small bands of such workmen as it 
could gather from the neighboring cities. These were 
efficient when they worked, but unfortunately, they were 
not always working. The installation of the roadway 
lighting system brought about an actual labor crisis. Hop- 
ing to speed the work, the services of eight American 
soldiers attached to the Kentucky hospital unit then oc- 
cupying the Manor were obtained to assist in setting up 
the poles and stringing the wires. But no sooner was this 
under way than Colonel Endicott, the Commissioner, re- 
ceived a communication from the Electrical Workers' 
Union of Great Britain stating that as the soldiers en- 
gaged in this occupation were not members of its organi- 
zation, every Union man employed on the hospital would 



THE MIRACLE OF ROMSEY 209 

be called out unless the soldiers were immediately taken 
off this work. The letter was at once referred to the 
British authorities, who advised the Red Cross to follow 
the line of least resistance, as it had had to do before, and 
remove the soldiers rather than precipitate a general strike 
at Sarisbury. So the Red Cross yielded and left the 
wiring job to Union men. 

When, later, it was of utmost importance that a larger 
working force be obtained, the Eed Cross considered the 
possibility of employing German prisoners and, jointly 
with the army, applied for five hundred. But this led 
only to another disappointment. A paragraph in the " In- 
ternational Agreement " was dug up which held that the 
labor of no prisoners of war could be utilized unless 'the 
prisoners were housed, and " housed " meant in houses, 
not tents. Unfortunately for the Red Cross, the only 
housing it could then offer was that provided by clean, dry 
tents which, hitherto, had been both adequate and accept- 
able. Wherefore that idea had to be abandoned. 

Only by keeping eternally at it, undaunted, undis- 
mayed, could the Red Cross maintain the work, and its 
own people, as well as all the available ones in the hospital 
unit, lent a hand. In the case of the latter, it brought to 
light several interesting persons, among them a nve-million- 
dollar orderly sergeant, Louis Haggin, of Lexington, a son 
of the noted Kentucky horse breeder; and John McCor- 
mack, another of Kentucky's wealthy men, who enlisted as 
" chief cook " and made a record for himself in a new 
calling. As there were no patients then in the hospital, 
the staff was glad to give all the aid it could in the con- 
struction, doing draughting and other skilled work as well 
as manual labor until such time as the arrival of patients 
would require their services as orderlies. 

The day came when the resolution which created Saris- 
bury Court received its reward. In the remembered 
autumn of 1918 the " flu " epidemic started. Incoming 
transports from America brought hundreds of cases and 



210 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

the disease spread among the camps like wildfire. To 
meet so grave a situation, Sarisbury was opened several 
weeks in advance of the fixed date and three hundred 
patients were admitted and cared for with all the prompt- 
itude and comfort they would have received in a great city 
institution. 

In the course of the building of Sarisbury many small 
problems presented themselves. One concerned a laundry, 
a prime necessity for a hospital. It was found impracti- 
cable to set one up on the grounds of the estate, so a large 
modern plant at Southampton was bought outright for 
$35,000. It had a capacity of 20,000 pieces of washing 
a week and the Red Cross operated it not only for Saris- 
bury Court but also for four other hospitals in the military 
area. 

So extensive and rich were the Sarisbury lands that the 
Eed Cross tried there its first experiment in hospital farm- 
ing in England. For the management of this enterprise it 
obtained the services of an American farmer resident in 
the country and he outlined a plan of expansion which 
would, eventually, have provided all the necessary dairy 
products, ham and bacon, poultry and eggs, and vegetables 
for the entire hospital. As soon as this undertaking be- 
came known abroad, the patriotic people of the little islands 
of Jersey and Guernsey in the English Channel proffered 
their aid in stocking the farm with pure-bred dairy cows. 
Mass meetings of cattle breeders were held on both islands, 
each group enthusiastically contributing thirty cows from 
its best herds. These were given to the Red Cross to ex- 
press appreciation of the manner in which America had 
rationed itself in order to increase the amount of food- 
stuffs shipped abroad at the time of the food crisis in the 
British Isles. Although the Government had for two years 
prohibited the exportation of cows from the Islands, even 
to the British mainland, a special license was procured and 
twenty of the pedigreed cattle were immediately shipped 
to Sarisbury. 




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THE MIRACLE OF ROMSEY 211 

From such beginnings Sarisbury Court would have gone 
steadily onward until it had exceeded even the highest 
hopes and ambitions that had inspired its foundation and 
guided its growth. But the abrupt coming of the Ar- 
mistice left it suspended in mid-air, as it were. The army, 
which had clung to its request for a 3,000-bed hospital, now 
decided that Sarisbury should be only a 1,200-bed institu- 
tion, and, perhaps, this is the best moment in which to say 
that 1,200 beds was the maximum capacity the Eed Cross 
had originally advised, although it yielded to the Army's 
wish for an institution nearly thrice that size. The 
larger building plans and the extension ofJ;he farm pro- 
ject were, therefore, at once relinquished, but the work 
was carried on to the extent that in January, 1919, it com- 
prised, in addition to the Manor House and the original 
farm buildings and servants' and tenants' cottages, these 
well-designed, well-built structures: twelve wards of sev- 
enty-eight beds each, a total of 836 beds ; a block of medical 
officers' quarters for seventy-two beds, one for nurses of 112 
beds and one for orderlies of 125 beds ; a large operating 
theater, a mortuary, recreation hall, bathhouse, dining hall 
for enlisted men, and the electric power plants already 
mentioned. And if Sarisbury Court did not become a 
3,000-bed institution, it did become the main hospital for 
the American Army in Great Britain. 

The building of Bomsey and Sarisbury Court may 
justly be accounted achievements, all things considered, and 
nothing can so accentuate this as a parallel, as a regretful 
but illuminating reference to an experience of the British 
Red Cross Society in hospital construction. To do this in 
fairness, it is necessary to go back to 1917. As a means of 
special appeal, the British organization had set apart 
October 17 of that year for a kingdom-wide collection 
of contributions to its funds. The day was called " Our 
Day." The American Red Cross, its Commission for 
Europe then only four months old, responded to this ap- 



212 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

peal by subscribing £200,000, approximately $1,000,000. 
This gift was conveyed to Sir Robert Hudson, bead of the 
Society, in the following letter: 

The American Red Cross, London Chapter, 
40 Grosvenor Gardens, London, S. W. 1. 
October 17, 1917 
My Dear Sir Robert : The American Red Cross takes great 
pleasure in subscribing for " Our Day " £200,000 to be used for 
the following purposes: 

£50,000 for relief and comforts to sick and wounded in hos- 
pitals, casualty clearing stations and on lines of communication 
in territories where British forces are fighting. 

£50,000 for the maintenance of British Red Cross auxiliary 
hospitals and convalescent homes in England. 

£100,000 for institutions in Great Britain for orthopedic and 
facial treatment and for general restorative work for disabled 
British soldiers. 

The distribution of these funds is, of course, to be entirely 
at your discretion. 

May I express the peculiar satisfaction that we feel in mak- 
ing this subscription? From the standpoint of our best judg- 
ment we rejoice in an opportunity to assist in the superb work 
that you are doing to relieve suffering and distress. But, in a 
larger way, we hope that you will accept our contribution as 
an earnest of the desire of our people to begin to take our share 
of the burden of the war which your forces have waged for three 
years on behalf of the whole civilized world. 

Very truly yours, 
(Signed) Grayson M.-P. Murphy, 
Major, A. R. C, U. S. A., 
American Red Cross Commissioner for Europe. 

This contribution, which earned the appreciation of the 
entire English people, was followed, on March 28, 1918, 
by a second one of £250,000. In transmitting it, Colonel 
Endicott wrote Sir Robert Hudson: 



THE MIRACLE OF ROMSEY 213 

I am authorized by the War Council of the American Red 
Cross to give to the British Red Cross £250,000 and I take great 
pleasure in handing you herewith our check for that amount. 

We realize how little it is in our power to lessen the horrors 
of war, but we feel it a privilege to aid by this contribution in 
the care of the wounded who have so gallantly fought for the 
cause which is now ours as well as yours, and to alleviate as far 
as possible the suffering caused by the great battle now raging 
in France. 

May we therefore, ask that you use this money for the pur- 
chase of hospital supplies and the care of the sick and wounded. 

This donation is accompanied by our heartiest good wishes 
and our sincere appreciation of the wonderful work that your 
society has accomplished. 

As a tangible token of thanks for these two donations, 
the British Bed Cross in June, 1918, expressed its de- 
sire to build and equip as fine a 500-bed hut-hospital as 
the Kingdom could provide, and present it outright to the 
American Red Cross. It explained the offer by saying it 
felt sure that American hospital needs would be far in 
excess of those anticipated and, therefore, wished to be of 
all possible service in solving the approaching problem. 
And by way of an inkling of what this hospital promised 
to be, King George offered to lend the land for it in his 
own Windsor Great Park. Colonel Endicott communi- 
cated this gracious proposal to the War Council at Wash- 
ington, which replied with enthusiastic acceptance. 

Unfortunately, however, succeeding steps in the project 
disclosed the fact that Windsor Great Park was unsuit- 
able for drainage purposes, owing to its clay formation. 
When the King was informed of this he immediately 
proffered a site in Richmond Park, which was found to be 
advantageous in every way, and a location on high ground 
overlooking miles of country was accordingly selected. 

Work was begun in June, 1918, the British Bed Cross 
explaining that it intended to build the hospital through 
the agency of His Majesty's Office of Works which, re- 
lieved of the obligation of obtaining priority certificates, 
could accomplish construction with more expedition than 



214 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

the ordinary contractor. It was expected, under this con- 
dition, to have the hospital finished and ready for occu- 
pancy in the following September, three months from the 
commencement of work. 

Three weeks after the signing of the Armistice, or about 
December 1st, the British Red Cross informed the Ameri- 
can Red Cross in England that in spite of every effort on 
its part and on that of the Office of Works, the hospital 
was then so far from completion that it did not seem pos- 
sible to finish it before March 1st, 1919, and, perhaps, 
not until thirty days thereafter. By this time the Ameri- 
can Red Cross had no need for this graciously offered 
institution and, with much reluctance, so replied to the 
British organization and work upon it was therefore 
stopped. 

With the next coming of " Our Day," on October 24th, 
1918, the American Red Cross made a third donation to 
the allied British organization, this time to the amount of 
£500,000, bringing the total of these contributions to £950,- 
000, or about four million seven hundred and fifty thou- 
sand dollars ($4,750,000). The check conveying this 
sum, which had been voted by the War Council at Wash- 
ington, was presented to Sir Robert Hudson during a 
dinner given by Colonel Endicott to the representatives of 
the British Red Cross and Order of St. John of Jerusalem, 
a number of notable Englishmen and Americans being 
present, including the Duke of Connaught, Lord Reading, 
General Biddle and Admiral Sims. In the brief speech 
of presentation, Colonel Endicott said : 

" You have placed at our disposal your entire organiza- 
tion, and I could cite countless instances of your valuable 
assistance. It is manifestly impossible for us to return 
in kind your many kindnesses, but we should be sadly 
lacking in appreciation if we did not make some effort to 
show our gratitude." 

In the same key was a letter accompanying the gift, 



THE MIRACLE OF ROMSEY 215 

which was written to Sir Robert Hudson by Mr. Henry 
P. Davison, and read at the dinner: 

Again on the occasion of " Our Day " anniversary, it becomes 
the privilege of the American Red Cross, acting for the Ameri- 
can people, to endeavor to express in a concrete and material 
way the appreciation of that people for the stupendous and con- 
stantly increasing effort during four years of war on the part 
of the indomitable men and women of Great Britain whom we 
have joined in an unfaltering resistance to the deadliest menace 
to which civilization has ever been subjected. 

It is with a feeling of thankfulness and gratitude that we 
are able to ask you to accept from the American Red Cross 
on behalf of the American people, this check for five hundred 
thousand pounds to be used in such ways as the experienced 
judgment of your Society may suggest, confident in our belief 
that in this way the best results will be attained, and that in the 
immortal words of Lincoln, it is our duty to dedicate all our 
resources and all our strength to insure " that those who have 
died shall not have died in vain." 

With the deepest appreciation of all that the British Red 
Cross and Order of St. John of Jerusalem has done for the 
American Red Cross, and conscious of the fact that in your 
hands this money will be spent so as best to serve the identical 
aims of our two societies . . . 

After Sir Robert had formally accepted, the Duke of 
Connaught also thanked the American Red Cross and 
added : 

" I am confident that gifts of this sort help to bind closer 
for all time the great Red Cross organizations on both 
sides of the Atlantic. Meeting at this moment, we cannot 
but hope that this may prove to be the last great war ap- 
peal of the Joint War Committee. To all of us, and 
we hope to all of you, it will ever be a pleasant memory 
that out of evil came good and out of the terrible suffer- 
ing of the war have grown a clearer comprehension of one 
another's aims and a closer cooperation in our common 
work of humanity." 

In addition to these gifts to the British Red Cross 



216 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

numerous American women in England, members of the 
American organization, helped in many ways on " Our 
Day " to increase the popular subscription, establishing 
themselves in a store in Bond Street, and decorating it 
with American and Red Cross flags. 

The three donations made by the War Council indi- 
cate that the American Red Cross did not confine itself 
to work in purely American hospitals nor through dis- 
tinctly American channels. It was always eager to do 
anything it could to aid war humanities, and the Com- 
mission for Great Britain contributed funds and supplies 
wherever they were needed. It gave a $30,000 Christmas 
gift in tobacco, pipes, and cigarettes to the British enlisted 
men lying wounded in British hospitals ; it sent the Lord 
Mayor of London a check for $25,000 " as a token of 
the appreciation which Americans feel for the care given 
to American wounded in the London civil hospitals," to 
be distributed among these institutions; it gave $100,000 
to the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Home and Foreign 
Service in recognition of Miss Kathleen Burke's work for 
these hospitals and to enable her to give more time to 
American Red Cross activities, this money being used for 
institutions in France, Serbia, Macedonia, Russia, and 
Corsica; it contributed $185,000 to the British National 
League for Health, Maternity and Child Welfare to main- 
tain eight American Red Cross Maternity Centres, two 
being in London, and one each in Glasgow, Aberdeen, 
Swansea, Birkenhead, Middlesborough, and Barrow-in- 
Furness, and day nurseries and mother's schools in sev- 
eral parts of the Kingdom. 

Indeed, one of the very first gifts made by the Ameri- 
can Red Cross for British relief work was the sum of 
$20,000 to establish infant welfare centers in Great 
Britain. Part of this gift was devoted by the National 
Baby-Week Council to the establishment of a center in 
Bethnal Green, a suburb of London. This center, typical 



THE MIRACLE OF ROMSEY 217 

of such a form of much-needed endeavor, was fitted up in 
a building which had been a public house, or saloon. As 
usual, this was one of the best buildings in the district. 
When the Government prohibited the sale of drink save 
during stated hours, many of the saloons in London were 
ready to go out of business, so it was not a difficult matter 
to obtain these premises. Public houses, even in the 
slums, have always been able to afford any luxury that 
would make their exteriors more attractive, and this one 
sported an alluring sign hung from an ornamental and 
ancient bracket. When the " pub " went out and the 
" centre " went in, the sign was repainted by an " artist " 
of the neighborhood, who had been engaged for the work 
by an American woman living in London. In its new 
dress it read : " American Red Cross Maternity And 
Child Welfare Center," with the Stars and Stripes rippling 
between the lines of lettering. 

The transformation of the " pub " was as complete as 
cleaning and painting could make it, but the entire cost 
of conversion, furniture, gas-stoves and plumbing rear- 
rangement was only $1,200. All the work was done by 
neighborhood workmen, who took proprietary interest in 
their old rendezvous, and who, without exception, were 
thankful to have it transformed into a place where their 
children might find health and amusement and their 
womenfolk advice and recreation. As the man who was 
laying the linoleum there one day said to a Red Cross 
representative, " Drink was all right before the war, an' 
I took my drop with the rest of 'em, but it's the babies 
we got to look arf ter now, the babies what we fought for. 
An' what's a drop o' gin against them, I arsk ye ? " 



This will convey a comprehensive idea of the extent 
of the indirect work of the organization in Great Britain 
and although the British Red Cross received the largest 



218 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

share of contributions, the total of funds donated by the 
American Bed Cross between November 1st, 19 17, and 
February 28th, 1919, was in excess of five million dollars. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE WATER-GATE TO FRANCE SOUTHAMPTON 

AS Southampton was the chief British port from which 
American troops embarked for France, Red Cross 
activities there were intense. More than 913,000 Amer- 
ican soldiers sailed from Southampton. Nor does this 
mark the full tally of Red Cross service, for there were 
other thousands which came in from the Northern sec- 
tors of the battle front, sick and wounded men, in need 
of much care, and these, too, were attended in the measure 
of their needs. 

Originally Southampton was comprised within the Win- 
chester area of Red Cross work, but military activity be- 
came so great at the port that a small, triangular zone was 
detached from Winchester early in June, 1918, with 
Southampton as its official center. The new area thus 
created included four American camps, one in Southamp- 
ton Common, two miles outside the city, the others at 
Netley, Beaulieu, and Eastleigh; four hospitals, the great 
one at Sarisbury Court, another in the rest camp on the 
Common and the British hospitals at Netley and Shirley, 
which received large numbers of American patients; two 
infirmaries at Eastleigh and Beaulieu, the Red Cross farm 
at Sarisbury, the Red Cross Laundry, and the endless 
movement at the docks. 

During the time Southampton was employed mainly 
with the transportation of troops to the Continent, that is, 
from February, 1918, to the following November, 868,358 
enlisted men, 45,141 officers, 6,872 nurses, 4,381 tons of 
stores and 1,543 vehicles passed through. When the 
stream began to flow the other way, 10,000 wounded or 

219 



220 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

ill American soldiers and 9,000 returned prisoners of war 
of several allied nations came through the. port. And long 
after the Armistice was signed, as late as March, 1919, 
hundreds of men, on two weeks' leave from France, passed 
on their way to holidays in England, Scotland, Wales and 
Ireland and then, in fourteen days, again took ship for 
their return. All the men of these hundreds of thousands 
were welcomed by the Red Cross, received canteen serv- 
ice or, in the case of the leave men, a well-filled luncheon 
box to cheer them on their journey back to duty. Cloth- 
ing was distributed where it was needed, comfort kits were 
provided, everything done that could be done. 

The Red Cross maintained a large office in Southampton 
as a base for the work with the passing troops as well as 
the point from which the building operations a»t the big 
Sarisbury Court Base Hospital were directed. The 
Southampton staff was of constant service to the officers 
of the Army Medical Corps stationed at the rest camp 
hospital and at their request various tasks of furnishing 
and renovating were done in the hospital hutments, the 
staff and other officers' quarters. 

However, Red Cross work naturally centered about the 
docks and the canteen service there had a large equip- 
ment with facilities for serving any number of troops. 
In one day more than 15,000 cups of coffee were given 
to the men as they filed to the transport gangways. At 
the rest camp there was also " field service " by the can- 
teen workers for the soldiers who came marching in, dusty 
and thirsty, from Winchester, Romsey, Stanton and Cod- 
ford, distances varying from eight to ten miles, the route 
from Romsey being over one of the finest Roman roads 
in Britain, on their way to embarkation. The men usually 
reached the camp at about noon in detachments ranging 
from 500 to 6,000. Here they were marched to a glade 
called " Back o' the Walls," where Cromwell's men had 
camped in Roundhead days, and where now the Red Cross 
and the American flags flew over four big portable counters 



THE WATER-GATE TO FRANCE— SOUTHAMPTON 221 

loaded with food about which stood twenty canteen ex- 
perts in readiness for the task. So skillful did the young 
women on duty become that as many as 5,000 men could 
be provided with coffee, sandwiches or buns, chocolate and 
cigarettes in one hour. This work began early in August 
and was continued until shortly after the Armistice. For 
a long time it was the only coffee canteen the embarking 
soldiers had, because, in the judgment of the British Mili- 
tary Authorities it was unwise to permit such a canteen 
on the docks. There can be no doubt of the serious respon- 
sibilities of the officer in charge of so important a port as 
Southampton, with its vast fleet of arriving and depart- 
ing shipping and its legions of passing soldiery upon whom 
so much depended. Everything about the docks had to be 
performed with the utmost expedition and the command- 
ing officer felt that his burden of responsibility would be 
much augmented if others than those directly attached to 
the military or naval services be granted access to the piers. 
So this was the reason the Red Cross established its coffee 
canteen in the glade " Back o' the Walls." 

The influenza epidemic of the late summer and early 
autumn of 1918 brought its emergency calls upon the 
Southampton area as upon every other Red Cross area in 
Great Britain. The climax of the scourge in Southampton 
came with the arrival of the great liner Olympic on Sep- 
tember 29th, carrying 6,000 troops and 150 other pas- 
sengers. When she docked at the long pier in front of 
Red Cross headquarters the epidemic had just begun to 
assert itself aboard and she came in with 400 cases. But 
during the next two days, before the troops had been de- 
barked, the number of victims had increased to 2,000. 

At that time the weather was very unfavorable in 
Southampton. It was cold and Wet, the air filled with 
the thick, chilling mist so characteristic of the low coasts 
of southern England at that time of the year. This was 
particularly unfortunate as the troops aboard the Olympic 
were from training camps in the mild climate of the 



222 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

the Southern States and therefore keenly susceptible to so 
great a change in climate conditions. For this reason the 
medical authorities hesitated to set them ashore, especially 
as the only place to which they could he taken there in the 
port was Southampton Rest Camp situated on low, damp 
ground and without sufficient facilities for taking care of 
a great number of sick men and of those who had been 
exposed to an epidemic such as had raged on the ship. 
Most of the housing of the camp was in tents without cots 
and the men had to sleep on floors which consisted merely 
of one layer of thin boards raised only a few inches above 
the moist ground. 

So, for a day or two, the men were detained on the 
Olympic and the doctors tried to fight the disease on ship- 
board. But the influenza became so virulent that it was 
necessary, finally, to debark the troops and take them to 
the rest camp in spite of the inadequate quarters and care 
that could be offered them there. From the time that 
the big troopship came to her pier until she was entirely 
unloaded, sick soldiers were being taken from her con- 
stantly. Of those who contracted the " flu " on the 
Olympic it was said that fully a third developed pneu- 
monia and that the proportion of fatalities was very large. 
The medical authorities in the hospitals around Southamp- 
ton were well provided to deal with any ordinary outbreak 
of disease, but this emergency taxed to the breaking point 
all their accommodations and preparations. Supplies, not 
only of drugs and equipment, but also of doctors and 
nurses, were rapidly exhausted. The Red Cross responded 
with all its resources. Its representatives boarded the 
Olympic as soon as she came in and thus learned the con- 
dition of things. It was able from the beginning, through 
all the time in which conditions grew steadily worse, to 
keep in touch with the authorities and furnish a steady 
stream of medicines, instruments, bedding, ambulances and 
oxygen tanks in response to the requests of the Army 
Medical Corps. There was particularly a shortage of am- 



THE WATER-GATE TO FRANCE— SOUTHAMPTON 223 

bulances and the Red Cross turned over to the army 
every one of its wheeled vehicles for use in conveying the 
sick to hospitals. 

Sarisbury Court, the big American Ked Cross hospital 
just outside of Southampton, had not yet been opened 
and the plans did not call for this for some weeks, but in 
view of the tragic emergency, the plans were at once 
changed and by dint of strenuous endeavor it was possible 
to arrange matters so that the hospital could immediately 
receive about 300 patients- By good fortune, the army 
medical unit assigned to Sarisbury was already on the 
ground although many of its personnel had been loaned 
temporarily to other hospitals. Colonel Hughes, the com- 
manding officer, recalled every surgeon, nurse and enlisted 
man he could find and was able to take care of the 
Olympic s men as they arrived. 

During this period, the personnel of the Red Cross at 
Southampton worked day and night without respite, co- 
operating closely with the army authorities and acting 
always in the most cordial harmony with them. All the 
supplies asked for were of an emergency character and 
instant delivery was obviously essential and as many of 
the things needed were not to be found in the Red Cross 
warehouses at Southampton, they were purchased either 
there in the city or by telegraph in London and conveyed 
in Red Cross automobiles all the way to the port to avoid 
any possibility of delay in train shipments. More than 
2,000 suits of heavy underwear for the men of the 
Olympic were obtained from the army quartermaster in 
London. 

The advantage which the Red Cross always had in an 
emergency of this kind was its ability to cut all the red 
tape of formal " requisitions " and " appropriations ?? and 
procure immediate delivery of the needed supplies. And 
more than once this enabled it to be of incalculable assist- 
ance to the army. Two incidents in its service for the 
Olympic s men are remarkable by reason of the unusual 



224 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

sort of aid it rendered. Colonel Endicott, the Commis- 
sioner, was in Southampton when the Olympic s sick were 
brought ashore. One of the army surgeons came up with 
despair in every feature. 

" We are terribly up against it," he said ; " we have 
no whiskey at all for these men. I've searched every- 
where and can't get a drop. If we don't get it — well, 
it will be mighty bad for a lot of our boys." 

Colonel Endicott, who knew what this meant, said he 
would try to get some, and hurrying into his car he went 
at top speed to the largest hotel in the city where he 
offered to buy then and there every bottle of whiskey 
in the hostelry's cellar at any price. The proprietor, de- 
murring at first on account of his " steady customers," 
finally agreed to part with five dozen quarts, asking that he 
be repaid, not in coin, but in whiskey as this was far less 
plentiful than money just then. Within five minutes the 
whiskey was loaded into the Colonel's car and on its way 
to medical headquarters. That night all sixty bottles were 
dispensed to the sick men and the surgeons agreed that 
thereby many lives had undoubtedly been saved. The fol- 
lowing morning Colonel Endicott and the Red Cross staff 
purchased all the available whiskey in Southampton and 
supplied the army's every need. 

The second incident came when the army medical 
authorities called upon the Red Cross officer in charge at 
the Southampton office for assistance in putting up parti- 
tions between the beds of the influenza patients as a means 
of checking the spread of pneumonia. This request came 
at the inopportune hour of midnight, but a fleet of auto- 
mobiles was at once sent out to the homes of a number 
of Southampton merchants, they were routed out of bed 
and persuaded to open their stores and supply the neces- 
sary paraphernalia, consisting principally of sheeting, 
wire, and screw-eyes. By 2 o'clock in the morning the 
Red Cross had delivered at the camp hospital all the re- 
quired equipment and before long every bed in the in- 



THE WATER-GATE TO FRANCE— SOUTHAMPTON 225 

fluenza wards was surrounded by a partition of sheeting 
which could be sprayed with antiseptic solution and serve 
as a curb upon the disease. 

Throughout the long battle with influenza in this dis- 
trict, the Eed Cross furnished special foods, such as milk 
and eggs and fruit which, in the opinion of the medical 
men, were of greatest aid in assisting and strengthening 
convalescence. 

In the early part of August, 1918, the American soldiers 
on the British front were just beginning to go into action 
and, in consequence, numbers of wounded were coming 
back to Southampton on the hospital ships which brought 
the British cases from Le Havre. That the Americans 
might be met and well cared for while their cases were 
being classified and assigned to hospital in accordance 
with types of illness or injury, the Red Cross formed a 
separate staff to undertake the task. This was begun on 
September 3rd. The point to which these transports 
brought their wounded was designated as " Dock 22," 
where there was a great shed, long enough to hold an en- 
tire hospital train of ten cars, into which the classified 
wounded were borne. It was of vital importance that the 
Eed Cross should have some one actually on the pier to 
see to the welfare of the Americans, so an appeal was 
again made to the officer in command of the port. This 
time he consented that one American Bed Cross woman, 
Mrs. Margaret Foster, of the Military Belief Department, 
should go to the docks, but he was still obdurate about the 
serving of coffee as it required too much apparatus. So, 
for a time, the Americans, whether wounded or embarking 
for France, received " dry rations " — biscuits, chocolate, 
and cigarettes — at the piers, but early in December the 
old General was completely won over and permitted coffee 
to be served, remarking he very much regretted not hav- 
ing given his consent at the outset, but that he had not 
believed any one could do what the Bed Cross promised — 
and fulfilled — " serve coffee without confusion or slopping 



226 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

it about." In November Mrs. Foster was joined by Mrs. 
Gerald O'Brien, of the same department — the General 
welcomed the Red Cross with open arms now — and they 
remained at the task until the middle of February, 1919, 
when there was no longer need of their so helpful service 
there. 

The number of American wounded received at the 
Southampton docks on a single day frequently rose above 
700 during the height of the fighting on the Western 
Front, for at that time from three to five hospital ships 
arrived every forenoon. The cot cases were carried from 
the transports and unless they were critical cases, desig- 
nated by an ominous red label, were placed indiscrimi- 
nately with the English, Canadians, and Australians on a 
large platform in the train shed. Red label cases were 
borne immediately to ambulances waiting at the docks and 
hurried to hospitals in the neighborhood. Sometimes the 
bearers brought ashore a still figure covered by a flag, which 
had not survived the crossing and never knew that his 
longing for " Blighty " had been fulfilled. It was the 
task of the two Red Cross women to seek out the Ameri- 
cans among all those cot cases and in the parties of walk- 
ing cases gathered, waiting, at one end of the dock. While 
many of these were promptly sent away to hospitals, others 
often had to wait for hours until the trains assigned to 
their particular destinations came in, for although train 
succeeded train as rapidly as possible, each was assigned 
to serve a special hospital district and each collected cases 
according to their character. However, every one of the 
Americans was always sought out and found and to each 
was given an American flag, a bar of chocolate, a hand- 
kerchief, and a package of cigarettes and later, when the 
General relented, coffee and whatever food they might be 
permitted to have. 

Everything possible was done to make the men com- 
fortable during the time they waited for the departure of 
their trains. On many occasions it was necessary to effect 



THE WATER-GATE TO FRANCE— SOUTHAMPTON 227 

a slight adjustment of splint or bandage and sometimes the 
men asked for some special medical attention and then 
the Red Cross workers would notify the British or Ameri- 
can medical officers and see that prompt attention was ac- 
corded. Immediately upon their arrival all the wounded 
were served by the British orderlies with hot beef tea and 
biscuits, and while this was a blessing to them, there is no 
gainsaying the keen pleasure of the men at meeting an 
American woman — something which, perhaps, had long 
been denied them — and their appreciation of the Ameri- 
can flags that were given to them. If they were well 
enough to raise their hands they invariably took the flag 
before the chocolate and many touched it to their lips. It 
was tucked in the caps of the very sick men and always pro- 
voked a smile upon the dreariest face. Some of the young- 
sters stuck little flagstafls into their splints and bandages 
and waved them despite their injuries. The packages of 
chocolate, by reason of an enclosed card stating that the 
nourishment in them equaled such and such an amount of 
ordinary foods, came to be known as " lamb chops," and 
were infrequently referred to officially as such by the pier 
authorities. When there were long periods of waiting for 
particular hospital trains, the Red Cross women were able 
to perform many acts of kindness for the men, not the least 
of which was that of writing post cards, and it was invari- 
ably true that no matter how badly wounded a soldier 
might be, even if seen to be past hope of recovery, he in- 
sisted upon having injuries, troubles, and homesickness 
minimized in these scraps of message to his homefolk. 
" Please write for me, Sister, but go light on the wound," 
was the way he would put it. " Say : ' This is Jimmie 
writing. I'm sending you love and kisses. I'm all right. 
I've landed in England and the Red Cross is going to see 
that I'm all right in the hospital. I'll let you know where 
I'm going when I get there. Don't worry. It isn't any- 
thing bad that I've got, just a bum arm.' " 

Naturally, the number of British and Colonial troops ar- 



228 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

riving at the decks was much larger than that of the Ameri- 
cans. And it was a great pleasure to the American workers 
to be able to minister to the needs of these allied soldiers. 
One British Tommy who received a package of American 
cigarettes and a cake of Red Cross chocolate as he lay on his 
stretcher wiped a tear from his eye when he said, " Thank 
you, Sister, that's the first present that I've had in four 
years." This man had been fighting since the beginning of 
the war ; this was his first home-coming. 

Frequently the workers were called upon to go aboard de- 
parting hospital ships, both those which carried Americans 
and those which were loaded with Canadians and Aus- 
tralians and here they found opportunities to do much help- 
ful work in distributing supplies and arranging for the com- 
fort of the men. 

When the repatriated prisoners of war began returning 
through Southampton there were, at the beginning, only a 
few Americans, comparatively, the mass being British, but 
the Red Cross distributed its stores to all alike. 

On Thanksgiving Day all the Americans received a copy 
of President Wilson's Proclamation, which had been re- 
printed by the Red Cross Department of Information in 
London for circulation throughout Red Cross posts in 
Britain and on Christmas Day the Red Cross had a 
sufficient number of stockings — more than 1,000 of them 
— for everybody on the docks, the arriving wounded, 
American, British, and Colonial, and also for the faithful 
dock laborers, orderlies and assistants who had been dealing 
with the wounded for so many months. And every man 
who received a Red Cross stocking, filled with nuts, choco- 
lates, cigarettes, a pipe and a handsome metal cigarette 
case, was as happy as if he had had an extra month's pay. 
Never was gift more appreciated and it did much to lift 
Christmas Day on the docks out of the unhappy daily rou- 
tine and make it at least something of a holiday for 
wounded and workers alike. 

As a historic foot-note, one of England's very dis- 



THE WATER-GATE TO FRANCE— SOUTHAMPTON 229 

tinguished and oldest buildings was used as a garage by the 
Red Cross at Southampton. It was close to the water front 
and built in the days when King Canute defied the rising 
tide in his capital at Southampton. The structure was 
originally part of the city wall and a post for expert 
archers. In the thirteenth century the city became a great 
wool port and this part of the wall was set aside as the wool 
market. During the Napoleonic Wars the " Wool House " 
was converted into a prison for French soldiers who fell 
into Wellington's hands and on the great roof trusses many 
of these unfortunates carved their names or initials which 
are today as sharply clear as ever. Then, in the twentieth 
century came the American Red Cross, a wide gateway for 
cars and vans took the place of the narrow prison doorway 
with its heavy, iron-spiked oaken barrier, and a high sign- 
board proclaiming the " American Red Cross " was set up, 
hiding the narrow loopholes through which the archers 
used to let their arrows fly. And so times change. 



CHAPTER XIII 

<C THE FLYING SQUADRON " AND SOME OP ITS FLIGHTS 

OlST a shiny marble pillar in the entrance hall of 'No. 52 
Grosvenor Gardens, which, before it became an Amer- 
ican Eed Cross administration building, was the town house 
of Sir George Faudel-Phillips, a Lord Mayor and High 
Sheriff of London, an assertive square of pasted paper ap- 
peared one day. Surrounded by the low tones of walls and 
hangings and of carved sixteenth century cabinets, it 
gleamed like a light. So deliberately did it catch the eye 
that no one who came in could resist reading what, in chal- 
lenging hand, was written upon it : 

TRY AND CATCH US! 

Five hundred dollars will be paid to the American Red Cross 
if, at any time, it can be proved that the " Flying Squadron " is 
not in action or ready for duty night or day (24 hours). 

Captain Wells, 
Emergency Department. 

Signed by the Commander of the " Flying Squadron." 

1st Lieutenant Jeffers. 

Quite aside from the fact that the " Flying Squadron " 
was never " caught," this defiant square of paper expressed, 
with rare terseness, a pride and loyalty not exceeded in any 
department of the Red Cross organization in Great Britain. 
It had been put up half in jest as answer to a laughing 
prophecy made by one of the men in another bureau : " You 
people are certainly getting away with it, but you'll crack 
some day, see if you don't." Yet, in reality, it was the un- 
furling of the flag under which the Squadron had always 
gone into action and under which it served with unfailing 
zeal and resourcefulness to the very end. 

230 



" THE FLYING SQUADRON " 231 

If it visibly proclaimed the spirit of a little corps of men 
reasonably and jealously prond of their success, so, with 
eqnal forcefulness, did a cheerless, quite uninviting room 
on one of the upper floors of the building proclaim it. 
This, furnished with four plain iron beds, four stiff chairs, 
a table and a telephone — lacking even the picture cards 
and colored gimcracks which a fellow far from home 
usually sticks upon the wall — was the night watch-tower 
of the " Flying Squadron." 

During the day, when all the machinery of the Red Cross 
was in full motion, every man at his station, the warehouses 
open, even the engines of the motor lorries warmed up, the 
work of the Squadron, while no less distinguished, was 
measurably simplified. In this there is no implication that 
the day tasks which fell to it were either easy or pleasant. 
Many of them were decidedly neither of the two and de- 
manded tireless energy. In fact, they predominated and 
were the ones in which the corps really wrote its enviable 
record. 

It was at night, naturally, that the Squadron had to ex- 
ercise its greatest ingenuity and drum up at all sorts of 
hours whatever agencies it required to meet sudden and un- 
expected demands. Its boasted preparedness throughout 
the twenty-four hours was based on the fact that from night- 
fall till morning two members of the corps were always on 
active duty, and the others, with their equipment of motor 
trucks and ambulances, their coffee urns and medical sup- 
plies, always within ready reach. The duty detail re- 
mained up and about at headquarters until midnight and 
after that went to sleep in the watch-tower, their uniforms 
arranged fireman-fashion for instant donning, a telephone 
between their beds. By arrangement with the London 
Telephone Company, all Red Cross calls after midnight 
were rung on that line. 

It is doubtful whether there existed in any other Com- 
mission in Europe an organization comparable with the 
" Flying Squadron." In the first place every man in it had 



232 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

to be a skilled motor driver, an EDIBLE cook (" if you 
know what I mean "), an expert on the typewriter (one of 
the corps, sotto voce: "Even if he can't spell ! "), the 
possessor of a reasonable amount of ready money, and a 
HUMAN BEING. (The same voice asked if these two 
words might not be capitalized.) Such a thing as a 
" grouch " was unknown in the corps. In addition the 
members were expected to be as quick of thought as of foot 
and hand, for the men of the " Flying Squadron " were em- 
powered to act " on their own," to do whatever they deemed 
the occasion of their service required. There was no tele- 
phoning "higher up," no let's-ask-the-Major; the emer- 
gency was for solution by whatever man or men had tackled 
it. " And outside of the fact that we were on duty seven 
days a week," one of them explained, " those were about 
all the regulations." 

Under these requirements were brought together more 
than a dozen capable young men, strong, self-reliant, inde- 
fatigable. And it was their esprit de corps, no less than 
their initiative, which made them so effective, which won 
no end of friends for the American Red Cross. 

Many important tasks fell upon their ready shoulders 
in the diverse work in Great Britain. They aided the 
rescued men of the Tuscania; they hurried to May to help 
bury the dead and succor the survivors of the Otranto; they 
gathered the homeless American soldiers and sailors in the 
night streets of London and gave them lodgings ; they shep- 
herded the bluejackets of Admiral Sims' fleet into the Royal 
Law Courts for a bunking place; they transported emer- 
gency equipment of all kinds at unheard-of hours; they 
went on countless flying-canteen excursions, taking hun- 
dreds of gallons of hot coffee miles from London to the men 
of arriving troopships ; they met American officers entering 
the city and found quarters for them long after the me- 
tropolis had shut its doors and turned in ; they met confused 
prisoners of war, fed, entertained, and housed them and 
whisked them off to hospitals when this was necessary ; they 



"THE FLYING SQUADRON" 233 

provided from somewhere, at dead of night, medical and 
surgical supplies when lives hung upon their procurement ; 
they gave a sturdy helping hand to every other bureau of 
the Eed" Cross organization, for whenever an undertaking 
seemed scarcely possible of accomplishment, some one was 
sure to say, " The c Flying Squadron ' will put that across 
for you." And so it would, with never a failure. When 
a chauffeurs' strike threatened to tie up temporarily the ac- 
tivities of the Commission, eight men of the Squadron re- 
ported one morning to the director of transportation and 
said, " Don't give in ; we'll run all the cars you'll need " — 
and broke the strike ! 

The cessation of hostilities in November had the effect 
of filling London with jubilation and human beings. 
While the former was universal, the latter were made up in 
large part of American sailors on leave, first from torpedo 
boats and mine sweepers and afterward from the big ships 
of the Scapa Flow fleet London, already overcrowded — 
it was estimated that the transient population exceeded a 
million — was now taxed to the limit of hospitality. The 
" Standing Eoom Only " sign could have been hung on 
every hotel in the city. The result was that hundreds of 
enlisted men were walking the streets, bedless. This was 
particularly hard on the Americans, many of whom had 
never before been in London and were like lost sheep. 

As precedents and conventions meant absolutely nothing 
to the " Flying Squadron," which recognized only the. rules 
and regulations governing every " human " creature, it de- 
cided that the well-heated Eed Cross Headquarters build- 
ings themselves would not make such bad bunking places. 
So, one fine night, taking things in its own hands, it simply 
commandeered them, collected a large party of bluejackets 
who did not know where they were going but were on their 
way, and shepherded them into the big mansions in Gros- 
venor Gardens. First of all the men were taken to No. 
52, where the Squadron had an emergency canteen which 
provided them with hot coffee, sandwiches, chocolate, 



234 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

oranges and cigarettes. Then the department rooms in 
building after building were given over to the sailors, with 
two blankets for each of the " guests " and the option of 
making his bed in a chair or on the floor. When all other 
rooms were filled, the Squadron genius in charge of the 
party, ushered half a dozen of his charges into the large 
private office of the Commissioner, moved the desks and 
chairs against the walls, threw down a pile of blankets, and 
said calmly, " Now, go ahead, you fellows, and pound your 
ears in peace ; you're in the boss's office ! " 

Such use of the buildings made it necessary to hurry the 
sleepers out at half -past seven o'clock in the morning so the 
rooms might be set to rights for the day's affairs. But the 
sailor folk were not left even then to the cheerless obliga- 
tion of routing themselves out and hustling about for break- 
fast. The " Flying Squadron " was astir long before that 
hour. It awakened the men and by the time the first one 
was in his clothes the emergency canteen at !N"o. 52 was 
again ready with gallons of hot coffee and enough bread 
and jam for a ship's crew. 

At the risk of spoiling the " efficiency " part of this in- 
cident, the writer must say that in the case of one bureau, 
its chief arrived at his office at 8 o'clock one morning to 
find a sailor lying on his desk stretching luxuriously be- 
fore arising and another tying his neckerchief at the office 
mirror. He was greeted with a punctilious " Good morn- 
ing, Sir, and thanks for the quarters." It was the fifth 
night his room had been so utilized and he had never known 
it. So, perhaps, there was some " efficiency " in it after 
all. 

As the number of enlisted men on leave increased day by 
day, so did the problems of the " Flying Squadron " and 
the entire Emergency Bureau. However, by the kind aid 
of Colonel Matthews, who was in charge of the Rest Rooms 
of the British Army, permission was obtained to lodge some 
of the Americans in a building of the Royal Mews, in the 
gardens of Buckingham Palace, and a Red Cross canteen 



" THE FLYING SQUADRON " 235 

was set up in the Buckingham Palace Hotel across the way. 
This, with the use of Ked Cross Headquarters — for no one 
ever interfered with the " Flying Squadron " — was a tem- 
porary solution of the difficulties. But to make it the more 
successful, the Squadron established its famous bus service. 
It chartered two omnibuses from the London company, 
hung upon each a large Red Cross flag and a sign reading 
"IT. S. JSTavy Sleeping Quarters," and sent them a to sea " 
under discretionary orders. The sole instructions given to 
the two Squadron men who manned each of these 
" cruisers" was to search the streets of London for " cast- 
aways," pick them up and take them either to the haven of 
the Mews or to Bed Cross Headquarters. They were to 
promise supper, a bed and breakfast to every man they 
found. 

The " cruises " began at 9 o'clock and continued until 
4 o'clock in the morning, the Strand, that ceaselessly busy 
street-of-all-the-world, being the highway most thoroughly 
searched, although the vehicles put in at every port of Lon- 
don to which sailors might be making in hope of an anchor- 
age. 

Any one familiar with the persuasive vocal methods of 
'bus drivers at a rural railway station when " the train from 
the city " comes in, will have an excellent idea of the 
manner in which the homeless sailormen were invited to 
partake of Bed Cross hospitality. One Squadron man was 
stationed on the top, or " bridge " of the " cruiser," the 
other on the conductor's " quarter-deck." Whenever a 
single sailor or a knot of them was encountered, the 'bus 
crew would begin its hailing : " Here you are mates ; we've 
got a place for you to sleep to-night ! " or, " Have some eats 
and a flop-down on the Bed Cross, Jack ? " or, " Here's the 
American Bed Cross sleep-finding 'bus, all aboard for sup- 
per, bed and breakfast ! " If the crowd was large the man 
on the top' of the 'bus would get down and circulate among 
the men, telling them to come to the Bed Cross headquarters 
then or later, just as they wished — but here was the 'bus 



236 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

all ready, why not jump in and ride there? Don't go to 
a hotel and spend your money, come to the Red Cross, it 
doesn't cost you a cent — Hey, bed, bed, who wants a 
bed?" 

The cries and the general merriment of the party always 
drew a crowd from the strollers in the street. When the 
sailors clambered aboard the 'buses they added to it all by 
hailing their fellows as they passed and inviting them to 
" join up." Normally, the London 'bus accommodates 
thirty-four persons, inside and out, but the sailors swarmed 
up the Red Cross " cruisers " until there were at least fifty 
aboard each one of them. When a vehicle could hold no 
more, even by dint of pushing and squeezing, it was headed 
for Grosvenor Gardens. There it discharged its load and 
went " to sea " again for another cargo. 2STot infrequently 
soldiers were picked up in the same way and now and then 
an Australian or a Canadian who happened to be " spend- 
ing the evening " with his American friends, because in 
the Red Cross headquarters buildings alone, sleeping space 
was available for nearly 600 men. For many nights -Kve 
hundred men at a time berthed there, 

Throughout the time of London's greatest congestion the 
'bus service was continued. When, early in December, it 
became necessary to find extensive quarters for the men and 
the Royal Law Courts were thrown open to them, as related 
in another chapter, it was the " Flying Squadron " which 
hunted the streets for the wandering sailormen and took 
them to the Courts by the 'bus-load. To the sailors crowd- 
ing into London, the American Red Cross meant everything 
in the matter of helpfulness and interest in their comfort. 
They came to rely upon it with implicit and by no means 
misplaced faith. One little episode amply illustrates this. 

As the crowd in the Strand was hurrying homeward from 
work one December night, two huge motor trucks filled with 
American sailors drew up to the curb. A " Bobbie," pass- 
ing on his beat, stopped a moment with a kindly grin to 
give them greeting. 



" THE FLYING SQUADRON " -237 

" Going home ? " he asked. 

" Not on your life, Bo," came in quick reply from one 
of the bluejackets. " We've just got here and we're giving 
your burg the once-over, see ? " 

" Well, you take my advice," the policeman replied 
gravely, " and find some place to sleep first off. A door- 
step is a cold place on a December night, and that's all that's 
left in London nowadays." 

" Oh, we're all right," the sailor sang out. " Our Bed 
Cross is taking care of us ! " 

Just at that moment a " Flying Squadron " man ap- 
peared at the front of the truck and called to the driver, 
" The end building, 'round the corner from Victoria 
Street, — - number Fifty-two Grosvenor Gardens ! " 

And as the convoy moved on again, the bluejacket leaned 
over the edge of the truck, tapped the " Bobbie " on the 
helmet and said : 

" Say, Cop, did you hear that ? Didn't I tell you we 
were all right \ " 

As the soldiers and sailors continued to arrive in London, 
either on leave or moving from one post to another, the Bed 
Cross decided to establish permanent rest houses or canteens 
extraordinary to provide them with food and shelter. 
While the idea was surely begotten of an intent to provide 
comforts for these brief sojourners in a teeming city, it may 
have been linked in some way with a determination to keep 
the " Flying Squadron " out of trouble ! Because the Com- 
mission had every reason to believe that, if all else failed, 
some one in the corps would begin making eyes at Bucking- 
ham Palace ! Therefore, as quickly as possible, fearful, no 
doubt, of delay, the Bed Cross inaugurated three such hos- 
pitable stations in London. And while they simplified the 
problems of the Squadron*, at the same time they curtailed 
its ingenuity. 

One of these stations was at No. 48 Eaton Place, close to 
the American Army Lleadquarters ; the second was at 28 
Golden Square, beside the headquarters of the Provost Mar- 



238 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

shal ; the third, for naval men, was at the busiest spot in the 
Strand, the first London street for which a sailor looks. 
All three of these were in fnll operation late in 1919 and 
it was planned to maintain them as long as the need con- 
tinued. 

The rest house in Eaton Place was a large, well-ap- 
pointed town house only a few hundred yards from Red 
Cross Headquarters as well. Canteen workers were on 
duty morning, afternoon and evening to act as hostesses, to 
serve coffee and biscuits, sandwiches and chocolate, to talk, 
play checkers, and to divert the men generally. The rooms 
on the main floor were made attractive with comfortable 
sofas, chairs, rugs and pictures. There was a large table 
for magazines, newspapers, and a talking machine, and 
smaller tables for letter writing. On the second floor was 
the ball-room, capable of being converted into a huge dormi- 
tory in case of emergency. The stories above were divided 
into sleeping rooms, while the basement provided kitchens 
and storage. Occasionally the men gave musical entertain- 
ments in the house and every week there was a dance, the 
young women of the Red Cross attending in sufficiently 
large numbers to furnish the men with at least a third of a 
partner apiece. 

A short time after this place was opened, the Red Cross 
was notified by the American military authorities that 150 
men were expected in London daily on leave from France. 
The Red Cross desired to provide canteen service for these 
men on their arrival at some point which would facilitate 
their registration with the Provost-Marshal, this being the 
soldier's first duty. Also it had been looking for a suitable 
place for use as a club room for the American Military 
Police, whose headquarters were at the Provost-Marshal's 
office. It seemed possible to combine these two services, 
and after a hurried inspection of available premises, the 
Red Cross representatives selected " the shabbiest house in 
London," at ~Ro. 28 Golden Square, adjoining the Provost- 
Marshal's Office itself. It had not been occupied for eight 



"THE FLYING SQUADRON" 239 

years and there were only two days left in which to get it 
into condition to receive the first party of 150 men. 

ISTow, if there was one thing in the world that appealed 
to the " Flying Squadron " — of course it was called in, it 
was always called in ! — here it was ; a whole house to be 
" done-over " in forty-eight hours ! " Can we do it ? 
Why, that's where we LIVE ! " was the unofficial answer 
to the official summons to action. 

So the Squadron turned out with a large and active staff 
of cleaners and painters, plumbers and carpenters, elec- 
tricians and gas men, house furnishers and house wreckers, 
and went at that building. They literally tore it inside 
out. While one detail of the Squadron was busy pulling 
up, knocking down and dragging out its internal arrange- 
ments, another equally energetic detail was hauling in, put- 
ting down and setting up the new contraptions of transfor- 
mation. In those two days the house was sufficiently oc- 
cupied to make up for all of the eight years of idle peace- 
fulness. The noise created the impression that a munition 
factory had moved into the neighborhood. 

Food supplies, chairs, sofas, tables, rugs, china, table- 
ware were brought by the van-load from the Red Cross 
warehouses, shouldering their way to the doorstep through 
the trucks lugging off the debris of demolition. It was a 
race against time with the " Flying Squadron " perspiring 
but happy.- And it won out, with minutes to spare, for 
within the time limit everything was ready, even to the 
bright chintz curtains in the windows and the cheerful 
array of American and Red Cross flags on the walls. 

So systematically had the work been done, so carefully 
had the functions of the establishment been planned that it 
ran like clockwork from the first day, and entertained 
weekly an average of more than seven hundred men. 

The third establishment was provided when the Red 
Cross leased the Strand Imperial Hotel, opposite the fam- 
ous Gaiety Theater and opened it in December as a club 
house for American sailors. Attractive sleeping quarters 



240 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

•and excellent food were provided for the men at such prices 
as enabled the institution to pay its own way from the out- 
set, purchasing its own supplies and receiving nothing from 
the Red Cross save the payment of the rent. Its first 
patrons were the men of " Admiral Sims' Naval Jazz 
Band/' famous throughout the service, and they proved 
such an attraction that the house rules were amended in 
order that they might become permanent residents. 

" Mother " Robertson, the chatelaine of this hospitable 
establishment, endeared herself to thousands of American 
sailors. Many of them sought their old rooms every time 
they came to London on liberty, and it is safe to say that 
very few passed through the city homeward bound without 
dropping in for a word of good-by — and a last piece of the 
chocolate cake or pie for which the club was justly famous. 
" Mother " Robertson conducted the club with due regard 
for discipline as well as comfort for, with all her greatness 
of heart, she had " an eye like Mars " to threaten and com- 
mand. 

One of the outstanding qualities of the " Flying Squad- 
ron " was the speed with which it accomplished things. 
This caused surprise even at Headquarters. If, in the 
early days, some one " higher up " telephoned to the Emer- 
gency Bureau to inquire about a " rush order " which had 
been sent through probably half an hour before, the answer 
invariably was, " Oh, that ? ; why, the i Flying Squadron's ' 
already attended to it," or " The ' Flying Squadron ' has 
flown ! " Later no one ever called up to inquire. 

The speed and efficiency of the corps was often well tried 
out and as well demonstrated in providing canteen service 
for the American troops when their transports put in at 
Royal Albert Docks or Tilbury Docks, the first fifteen, the 
other twenty-nine miles below London. These arrivals 
could nearly always be classed as " emergencies," for the 
military authorities guarded until the very last minute the 
destination of a convoy, and such a " last minute " allowed 
precious little time for Red Cross preparation. Further- 



" THE FLYING SQUADRON " 241 

more, there were often as many as 3,000 soldiers to a trans- 
port and the capacity for coffee, buns, sandwiches and 
chocolate of the soldier who has been at sea for nearly two 
weeks is worthy of physiological research. 

By reason of the necessarily preserved secrecy in refer- 
ence to the troop arrivals, the first ship which the " Flying 
Squadron " met at the Royal Albert Docks gave it a busy 
time. What happened is in every way better told in the 
words of one of the corps who had a hand in it : 

" We got news at Headquarters at 6 o'clock one night — 
it was September 8 th — that -a tra-nsport was on its way up 
to the docks. That meant hustle with a capital H. The 
first thing we did was to make enough coffee to fill two 
twelve-gallon urns — knowing how to make coffee is part of 
our job. These urns keep hot for about seven hours, you 
know, and we packed them into a big motor truck with a lot 
of ground coffee and condensed milk, sugar, biscuits, choco- 
late and cigarettes, and a thick bundle of the Daily Bulletin 
of that morning with most of the news from home in it. 
Wherever and whenever we went on a call like that we took 
the Bulletin, because it was just what the men wanted — 
and it lasted longer than anything to eat ! 

" It was nearly 8 o'clock by the time everything was 
ready and then we climbed into the truck, put a foot on the 
accelerator, and didn't take it off till we got to the docks. 
That was an hour later, but it was good speed for fifteen 
miles because we had to go a great part of the way through 
London streets. But we had Red Crosses on our head- 
lights, so that made everything all right. 

" We expected to see the transport coming in when we 
got there, but no such luck ! The very best of official in- 
formation was that the vessel could not come up until 7 
o'clock next morning on account of the tide or something. 
Well, it was all in the night's work, so we lugged the coffee 
urns aboard a merchantman lying in one of the docks and 
prevailed upon the steward to keep the coffee hot for us. 
As it happened, we were not the only ones waiting that 



242 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

night ; there were trains and crews all ready on a siding to 
take the newcomers off to camp. There wasn't anything 
for us to do around there, so we took to the truck and set 
out on a hunt for a hotel in the neighborhood. While we 
were on the way several people in a crowd in the dark, see- 
ing our Eed Crosses on the lamps, hailed us. We stopped 
and learned that a man riding a bicycle had been run over 
by a train, so we picked him up with his broken wheel and 
went at top speed to the nearest hospital. After we'd 
carried him in we got his name and address from papers 
in his pocket and at once headed the truck for his home. 
His wife had been dead less than two weeks, but he had a 
sister-in-law taking care of his three little children, so we 
hurried her to the hospital to see the injured man and 
brought her home again. Incidentally, we gave the kid- 
dies some Red Cross chocolate and a little collection we 
took up among ourselves. 

" That left us just where we started : looking for a hotel. 
To save gas we parked the truck at a police station and be- 
gan again on foot. At 2 o'clock in the morning we found 
' Jake's Palace ' ! The ( Palace ' part of it consisted of 
one big room with one hundred and fifty beds in it ! The 
fellow who let us in boasted about the number and I believe 
him. It looked as if an army was asleep in the place. We 
turned in all standing, boots and all, and slept as if we were 
dead. But Gtabriel came around with the well-known 
Trumpet at half -past five and we turned out again, feeling 
as if we'd never even lain down. As we didn't have to stop 
to dress, we got the truck, went to the docks and had the 
coffee ashore, piping hot and more brewing, before 7 o'clock. 

" But there was no transport, certainly none of joy in our 
breasts. We posed around, first on one foot and then on 
the other until half-past ten o'clock, when up came the 
troopship as if she had the whole day before her. She had 
about 2,200 men aboard and they were mighty glad to see 
us when they tramped down the gang-plank. 

" Well, we kept the coffee going, making it as fast as we 



" THE FLYING SQUADRON " 243 

could, because it takes 150 gallons to supply 2,000 men, and 
while we were in the midst of the work, in came another 
vessel with 1,500 soldiers, hungry Yankee soldiers, hang- 
ing over her rails ! That was a facer, because we had been 
told to count on 2,000 men and could stretch the service to 
2,400, but an added 1,500 was too, too much ! 

" In order to do anything at all after the coffee was all 
gone — it was impossible to get any more in the short time 
between debarkation and entrainment — we had to cut 
down the chocolate, biscuit and cigarette rations, but every 
man got a little of each of them. Both ships were a long 
time coming into the dock and it was six o'clock in the after- 
noon when the last train pulled out. By the time we had 
everything washed up and stowed in the truck it was nearly 
9 o'clock and then we started on the journey back to Lon- 
don." 

" But that was an easy job," piped up another member 
of the Squadron, " compared with one at Tilbury Docks 
about two weeks later. There was a railway strike on just 
then and a transport we went to meet had to stay out in the 
stream a day and a night before trains could be provided 
to take the men to their camp. But we got a small boat 
and carried the coffee aboard the ship and served it on deck. 
There were 2,000 colored troops on that vessel and if it had 
been a still day you could have heard them drinking that 
hot coffee a mile away. They had had no cigarettes for 
three days until we passed them around. The Bed Cross 
certainly made a hit that time. During the night that the 
transport lay off the docks not one of us could lay off for a 
sleep; we had to stay up to make a hundred and fifty 
gallons more of coffee for the morning. But thfet much of 
our work was all for nothing, so far as the troops were con- 
cerned, because when they came ashore they were put 
aboard the emergency trains so rapidly that we didn't have 
a chance to give them a drop of it. However, we did sup- 
ply them with more cigarettes and chocolate and after the 
trains left we treated the dock superintendents and laborers 



244 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

to as much coffee and biscuits as they could possibly hold. 
That turned out to be a better job than we ever thought. 
It was like casting bread upon the waters, because in the 
days to come we frequently got tips by telephone from the 
docks — of course we didn't know where they came from 
— far in advance of official notification concerning the hour 
of transport arrivals and thereby gained time for fuller 
preparation. I know that the ' Plying Squadron ' made a 
host of friends for the American Red Cross." 

Mr. Henry P. Davison, Chairman of the War Council, 
was a witness of the speed with which the Squadron worked. 
Early in November, 1918, while making a two-day tour of 
inspection of Red Cross activities in the South of England, 
he was the guest of Colonel Endicott at a dinner in London 
which was attended by the heads of the various Red Cross 
departments. Among those invited was Lieutenant 
JefTers, Commander of the " Plying Squadron," who 
confided to a bosom friend that it was the first time he had 
been able to get into a white collar since his arrival in Eng- 
land ; wherefore it was an event. 

In an address of congratulation upon the work the entire 
Red Cross organization had done in Great Britain, Mr. 
Davison came, in time, to speak of the admirable efficiency 
of the " Plying Squadron," with particular reference to the 
care of the survivors of the Otranto disaster, a large part 
of which had fallen to JefTers. But JefTers was not there 
to hear. Just as he was buttoning his white collar the spe- 
cial telephone of the " Plying Squadron " rang like mad. 
A private hospital in London was on the wire with the 
message that one of its patients, a lieutenant in the British 
Army, was undergoing a serious operation and would surely 
succumb unless some tanks of oxygen could be at once ob- 
tained. The voice explained that the hospital had its last 
tank then in use and could find no other anywhere in Lon- 
don; and would not the American Red Cross come to its 
aid? 

Off came the gala collar and away went all idea of reach- 



" THE FLYING SQUADRON " 245 

ing the dinner as Jeffers scrambled into his blouse. A 
scarcity of oxygen containers bad long been prevalent in 
London; the Red Cross had not been able to keep any of 
them in stock, but it was now up to the Squadron to main- 
tain its cherished reputation. There were three possible 
sources from which to draw, at least to tap: two in the 
city, St. Katharine's Lodge and the Red Cross Naval Hos- 
pital in Park Lane, and one, U. S. Base Hospital 29 at 
Tottenham, eight miles away. From three different tele- 
phones these places were called and as each promised a tank 
of gas, two motor cars were at once ordered out with need- 
less instructions to the drivers to go over the tops of the 
houses if necessary to get them. And within an hour all 
three tanks were delivered at the private hospital. As an 
appropriate finis, the officer's life was saved — and Jeffers 
got to the dinner in time for coffee. 

" Outside " requests such as this often came to the 
Squadron, which had a sufficiently large staff to answer 
every call, even two or three at once. An unusual one 
came one night at 11 o'clock in a telegram from a small 
village on the south coast of England ; it was signed with 
a woman's name : 

My father, late captain TJ. S. Transport Service, now dying, 
has always expressed wish for U. S. chaplain at the last. Can 
you favor me with name and address of one within reach? 
Grateful thanks. 

The Squadron man on night duty had never before been 
asked for that kind of help, but, calling his duty-mate to re- 
place him, he went out to get, not an address, but a chap- 
lain. After an hour's journey he found Chaplain Locke, 
of the Red Cross, returned to Headquarters and telegraphed 
the answer : 

Chaplain arrive your house to-morrow morning. Deepest 
sympathy of the American Red Cross. 

Chaplain Locke caught the first train for the village 
shortly after daylight. 



246 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

Toward the end of October, 1918, the "flu" became 
severe among the sailors at Berehaven, the American Naval 
Base at the southern tip of Ireland. There were no hos- 
pital accommodations ashore sufficient to cope with the out- 
break and the situation grew to be acute almost im- 
mediately. The Bed Cross obtained from Admiral Sims 
the necessary authority to set up a hospital on the Furious 
Pier and Lieutenant Cameron of the Squadron was 
selected to take the requisite equipment to the scene. 
This consisted of twenty-five beds, with their mattresses and 
pillows, seventy-five sheets and blankets, six wicker lounge- 
chairs, and a generous quantity of medicinal supplies. 
The instructions to Cameron were as terse as always to a 
member of the corps : " See how quickly you can get to 
BantryBay!" 

]STow, speed on such a journey at such a period would 
have been a problem to a man traveling all alone; it be- 
came something indescribable when he had to take two 
truck-loads of impedimenta with him. But the Squadron 
men were accustomed to this kind of thing, surprised at 
nothing. As soon as the trucks were loaded at the Bed 
Cross warehouse in Coleman Street, Cameron piloted them 
to the passenger train for Holyhead and had their contents 
put aboard as personal baggage ! " It was the first time, 
I'll bet you, that those railway porters ever saw a man 
traveling about with his own personal hospital," Cameron 
said afterward, " and either from curiosity or interest they 
were right on the job when it came to packing the stuff into 
the luggage vans." 

It was 6 :30 o'clock next morning when the train reached 
Holyhead and there the first hitch occurred. The mail 
boat could not take the " hospital " aboard on account of its 
weight, but Cameron searched up and down the piers until 
he found a cargo boat which was going out that afternoon. 
As there was no one else to help, every one being busy, he 
and a solitary porter appropriated a pair of hand trucks 
and, piece by piece, pushed that " personal hospital " to 



"THE FLYING SQUADRON" 247 

another pier at which the cargo boat was moored. By 2 
o'clock it was all stowed in the hold and an hour and a half 
later the vessel sailed. Seven hours were required for the 
run, four hours longer than the time of the mail boat, but 
the cargo carrier went slowly and warily because only a 
short time before the Irish mail boat Leinster had been tor- 
pedoed in those waters with the loss of more than six hun- 
dred lives and the Japanese ship Hiramo Maru had met a 
like fate. The skipper was taking as few chances as pos- 
sible, especially as he was running without convoy of any 
kind. 

At Kingston, Cameron cajoled the crew into breaking out 
his belongings quickly and they were stacked on the pier 
by 1 o'clock. The next train bound in the general direc- 
tion of Bantry Bay and Berehaven was due to leave North 
Wall, Dublin, six miles away, at 10 :30 o'clock that morn- 
ing, so the Squadron man hired two motor trucks, piled his 
hospital into them, made the transfer and got to Cork late 
that night. Now occurred the second hitch. It was Satur- 
day night and there were no trains for Berehaven on Sun- 
days ! It was a heart-breaker, but Cameron " carried on " 
as well as he could, having the two railway luggage vans 
which contained his- stores transferred to another railway 
line and attached to the Berehaven train just five minutes 
before it drew out of Cork on Monday morning. 

At 2 :30 o'clock that afternoon he delievered the " hos- 
pital " to Captain Russell at the Naval Base, less than 
forty-eight hours after leaving London ! 

In innumerable instances the Squadron saved the day by 
rushing emergency supplies to hospitals, by taking addi- 
tional quantities of coffee, food and cigarettes to railway 
and camp canteens when their stocks had been suddenly 
exhausted by unusual demand, and by caring for every 
American soldier and sailor, officer and enlisted man who 
came into its' hands or who could be enticed into them. It 
was a sleepless, fatigueless organization and thousands of 
Americans who passed through England on their way to or 



248 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

from the battle areas will never know how much of the 
comfort that was brought to them came through the en- 
thusiastic, devoted service of the " Flying Squadron." 

There is another story of this little band of men still to 
be related. Its rightful place is in the narrative of the 
American Expedition to Eussia, and there it will be found. 



CHAPTER XIV 



A EOYAIi " BERTH-DECK " 



IK England, custom and precedent were believed to be 
established upon a rock, firmer, perhaps, than else- 
where in all the world. " It just isn't done, you know " 
was an expression with a fixed and useful place in the lan- 
guage, serving to convey both surprise and finality. It was 
something behind which one could not go and possessed a 
determined value in maintaining dignities, and all that sort 
of thing, as well as holding the country rigid against un- 
desirable experiment. 

And then the war came and, with it, a new order. 
Things had to be done which had never been done before, 
nor were likely ever to be done again. So the venerable 
expression recurred with decreasing frequency until it be- 
came meaningless and, at last, obsolete. Englishmen grew 
accustomed to whatever strange demands this new order 
made imperative. They ceased to be surprised at any- 
thing, though it threatened the rock itself. 

This was all very well in war time, but, with the war at 
an end and the conventions clamoring for recognition, 
imagine saying to an average Londoner, even in the most 
polite way, " We'd like to borrow your Royal Courts of 
Justice to use the building as sleeping quarters for Ameri- 
can sailors !" 

What a picture it conjures to the mind ! — consternation 
— incredulity, and then " You're spoofing, what ? " 

But the picture is all wrong in any event, for these 

identical words were addressed, not, as it happened, to 

an average Londoner, but to the Lord High Chancellor of 

Great Britain and Ireland — and forty-eight hours later 

249 



250 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

twelve hundred American sailors were asleep in the Royal 
Courts of Justice of Great Britain ! 

Nor was it in the emergency of a single night that this 
extraordinary thing came to pass. Every night for a week 
the sailors slept there — more than nine thousand of them 
in all — the welcome guests of a hospitable Lord High 
Chancellor and the American Red Cross, which had asked 
this unprecedented favor in their behalf. 

The mere idea of it intrigues the imagination! The 
" Great Hall " of the Royal Courts, ante-chamber of Eng- 
land's highest and most austere tribunals — a sailors' 
" hotel ! " This vast, stone edifice, associated with the 
very foundation of an Empire people's rights, the abode of 
unsmiling effigies of countless departed Chancellors in all 
the solemnity of wig and robe and given to endless nights 
of respectful silence — echoing to the jest and laughter of 
a horde of irrepressible bluejackets going reluctantly to 
bed ! A thousand of them with their mattresses dotting a 
rich mosaic floor as long as a !New York City block and 
wider than Eifth Avenue. High in the gray walls about 
them, the dim, narrow windows, many-paned and blazoned 
with the colorful arms of England's successive Chancellors 
for nine hundred years. And over all lost in the whisper- 
ing darkness, the deep arches or a vaulted roof for ceiling, 
eighty feet and more above their drowsy heads. 

But these were not all of the sailormen. There were 
two hundred others, scattered through the flanking alcoves, 
on the wide stair landings, beneath the dignified busts of 
the gowned Lords in the corridors, even in the high-flung 
balcony in which Queen Victoria sat, surrounded by her 
Court, and ceremoniously opened the great structure thirty- 
six years before. 

As unrestricted and inconceivable as their possession 
was, it meant even more than a lodging for the night. Eor 
with them came an American Red Cross canteen, a cheery 
complement of workers with a numerous paraphernalia of 
urns and dishes, food and drink. It provided them with 



A ROYAL "BERTH-DECK" 251 

supper and breakfast throughout the period of their me- 
morable occupancy, never closing until the last hungry man 
had struggled in, though it were three o'clock in the morn- 
ing yet ready for the first who stirred when daylight came. 
And one night, these tireless young women of the canteen 
put by awhile their cups and things and gave the blue- 
jackets a " supper dance " to the music of a Naval " Jazz 
Band " — in the " Great Hall " of the Royal Courts of 
Justice ! 

Verily, the old order changeth ! 

But this is inverting a remarkable story and beginning 
it at the end. Its actual preface is the detachment, after 
the Armistice, of the great ships of the American Navy, 
with their 15,000 men, from important and ex-acting service 
with the British Grand Fleet. 

For more than a year they had been constantly under 
steam in the bleak waters north of Scotland, their crews 
always on tiptoe, never ashore save in small parties for a 
few hours at a time and these at long and trying intervals. 
It had been " liberty " but not much else. 

That the men were entitled to a share of real sailormen 
diversion, once their vigilant task ended, was well 
recognized by their Commanders and, of course, London at 
once suggested itself as the ideal place for it. 

But London was already full to overflowing, hotels and 
lodging-houses were bulging with the people squeezed into 
them, and civilians, as well -as soldiers and seamen, were 
roaming the streets in search of beds. To find sleeping 
quarters for several thousand American sailors was de- 
clared to be an impossibility. Even a particularly agile 
A.B. would have difficulty in finding enough to swing a 
hammock. 

This was a great disappointment to those at Navy Head- 
quarters because they wanted the men to have a chance to 
visit London but had no intention of permitting them to 
come and shift for themselves in a stuange and over- 
crowded city. So it had been definitely decided that such 



252 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

liberty would be granted to only a small number of them. 
The others would have to stand their regret with the same 
fortitude with which they stood their watches. And in the 
meantime the ships were on their leisurely way from 
Inverness to Southampton, every man Jack aboard shad- 
ing his eyes and looking toward London. 

It is just at this point that the American Bed Cross 
comes into the story. 

One day — it was while the fleet was steaming leisurely 
southward — Captain Richard Armstrong, the Director of 
the Eed Cross Bureau of Naval Service, asked a member of 
Admiral Sims' staff what arrangements had been made to 
bring the crews to London. The regretful reply was that 
beyond allowing a few men liberty, the thing was quite out 
of the question. 

" London is jammed with people now. There isn't a bed 
left in it. We can't let nine or ten thousand bluejackets 
stand on the street corners all night long." This was, in 
substance, the remainder of the reply. 

What followed will undoubtedly be the better understood 
with a word or two about Armstrong. In the first place, 
there are very few officers in the American Navy who do not 
know him. The time is not far distant when every rear 
admiral on the list will be " Hello, Bill," or " Hello, Tom," 
to him — many of the " four stripers " are that now. For 
Dick Armstrong coached the football teams and the crews 
at Annapolis in 1897-8-9 and has kept in touch with the 
Navy ever since. Turning back one biographical leaf will 
disclose him at Yale in the Class of 1895, on the 'Varsity 
eleven and in the 'Varsity boat. 

Armstrong fully appreciated that the answer to his in- 
quiry was reasonable enough, but it did not satisfy him. 

" Too bad, isn't it ? " he asked after a pause. "Those 
fellows have been up north so long, it's a pity they can't 
come here just for a day or two, isn't it ?" 

He was not asking the questions with the least expecta- 



A ROYAL "BERTH-DECK" 253 

tion of contradiction; lie was gaining time in which to 
think. 

" You're going to have a lot of badly disappointed boys 
on your hands if they don't get a chance to come to Lon- 
don," he went on. "And I look at it this way, too: we 
ought to do all we can for international good feeling — 
it's going to do a lot of good to have our bluejackets come 
here and sort of mix up with the people. They don't know 
the English; the English don't know them. It's a pity 
they'll have to go home and take Scapa Flow and the 
Orkneys as their only recollection. I think it's a duty we 
owe to these boys, indeed I do, to bring them here. 
They've worked hard, they ought to have a chance to play 
a bit — and if they play in London they'll be playing on 
our side! Our soldiers have made the English good 
friends of ours; it's too bad we can't show them our sailor- 
folk." 

The naval staff officer agreed with everything Armstrong 
said but repeated that there was no place in London to 
house the men at night. The day offered no problem at 
all ; that began with the dark. 

" Well, now listen to this proposition," Armstrong said 
at last. " The Red Cross will do the impossible and pro- 
vide quarters for these men. We'll get them somewhere. 
And when we do, will you go right into the Admiral's cabin 
and say it's absolutely necessary that the men come to 
London ? " 

The officer agreed to this, probably more to please an 
enthusiast than with any idea that the thing could be done. 
There was, however, one proviso: the Red Cross would 
have to guarantee the care of the men, otherwise the 
ISTavy would grant liberty to a few sailors only. 

Armstrong did not hesitate one moment. 

" I'll give you that guarantee here and now," he said. 
" The Red Cross will provide for these men. It will give 
them sleeping quarters and supper and breakfast as long 



254 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

as they're here. You people send them up to London and 
we'll do the rest ! " 

And that day he and Captain H. S. Wells, Director of 
•the ever-resourceful Emergency Bureau of the Red Cross, 
which thrived on problems, set out to ransack London for 
what no one believed to exist — sleeping quarters for thou- 
sands of men. Hotels and lodging-houses were, for good 
reason, eliminated in the search which followed. Empty 
buildings, skating rinks and dance halls were what re- 
mained and these were investigated throughout the city, 
but not a place for the sailors could be found. Armstrong, 
still sanguine, took his troubles to every one he knew, hop- 
ing that some one might suggest a solution. During his 
round he asked a friend on The Daily Mail to help with a 
paragraph or two about the desirability of having the 
American sailors come to London, with accent upon " in- 
ternational friendship, hands-across-the-sea — you under- 
stand, old man. See if you can't get Lord JSTorthcliffe in- 
terested." 

The first result of this was both Lord Northcliffe's in- 
terest and an article in the Mail; the second was that 
Lieutenant Colonel A. G. Cousins of the British Army, 
in charge of the billeting of English troops in London, 
caught a ripple of the splash Armstrong was making. He 
came forward at once with an offer to the Bed Cross of 
the use of seven drill halls in the city belonging to the 
London Scottish, the Queen's Westminsters and other 
London regiments. He explained that they would accom- 
modate about 1,400 men and could be withdrawn from the 
service of their own troops for a limited period but that 
the Bed Cross would have to supply the requisite bedding 
and blankets. 

This was an encouraging beginning but only a beginning, 
so Armstrong and the others continued their quest and 
tramped London from end to end. 

The day before the United States ships came into 
Bortsmouth, an American resident in London, D. Camp- 



A ROYAL "BERTH-DECK" 255 

bell-Lee, Esq., a Barrister-at-Law and Secretary of the 
American Navy League in London, suggested that perhaps 
the Royal Courts of Justice might be an excellent place in 
which to billet the sailors. Armstrong and the Emergency 
Bureau would no more have thought of suggesting this than 
of hinting for Buckingham Palace! But Mr. Campbell- 
Lee was quite in earnest and even asked the Red Cross to 
inspect the Great Hall " to see whether it would do." 

What the Red Cross men found took their breath away. 
Here was a vast chamber, 240 feet long, 45 feet wide and 
85 feet high, warm as a bedroom and equal to berthing all 
the men of the fleet! In the groined crypt adjoining it 
were dining rooms and a restaurant kitchen equipment. 
The place was ideal, but it was impossible not to believe 
that there was a catch in it somewhere. Nevertheless, the 
American barrister assured them it was far from impossible 
and would send them word about it in an hour or so. In 
that interval he went to the High Lord Chancellor and 
lay the matter before him. It required less than one 
minute for Lord Finlay to decide. He told Mr. Campbell- 
Lee that the American Bed Cross might have the Great 
Hall for the sailors' use for as many nights as were neces- 
sary, only asking that the greatest care be exercised to 
prevent encroachment upon the regular and ordinary rou- 
tine of the chamber and its daily employment in connec- 
tion with the courts. And as Mr. Campbell-Lee left his 
chambers, the Chancellor said, with a smile, " I am sorry 
that we did not think of this hospitality long ago." 

When Armstrong learned this he dropped everything else 
and flew to Navy Headquarters. 

"Now let your bluejackets come!" he cried to his 
friend on the Staff. " We've got a palace for 'em ! Send 
ten thousand if you want, only let 'em come in two or three 
batches and when they get home they'll certainly have a 
yarn to spin. They're going to bunk in the Royal Law 
Courts which, I take it, is going some ! " 

This admitted of no disagreement and, leaving the Navy 



256 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

captain with his mouth wide open, Armstrong dashed back 
to cheer up the Emergency Bureau which had received 
the news and already begun its work. 

The Royal Courts of Justice, in the Strand at Temple 
Bar, which was once a London slum, is an imposing 
structure housing the entire twenty-three civil courts of 
England. The Great Hall, which is the main entrance 
to them, is built of Portland ston'e, quarried by prisoners 
at Dartmoor, and is one of the great monuments of modern 
architecture. In employing it as a billet for American 
sailors it was imperative that the injunction of the Lord 
High Chancellor be carried out to the letter and in such 
a way that no trace of its novel use should remain when the 
time came for the courts to open. The courts were sitting 
daily from 9.30 until 5.30 so, between those hours, on 
the other side of the clock, the Great Hall with its five 
miles of alcoves and corridors, was at the service of the 
sailors. 

The day the permission was granted, the Emergency 
Bureau had 10,000 billeting cards printed for use of the 
men assigned to the drill halls and those who came «to the 
Law Courts. The cards bore the name and address of each 
billeting place, the hour at which it was open, a list of 
things of interest to be seen in London and a note: 
" Show this card to any police officer and he will give you 
directions." Another little card was also printed giving 
information about the Great Hall, its dimensions, some- 
thing of its history and a concluding paragraph which said : 
" Every sailor who sleeps here may justly feel that he has 
had a unique experience, as this courtesy which has been 
extended is without precedent." 

These things accomplished and everything else arranged, 
Armstrong and the Emergency Bureau sat and waited for 
word from Navy Headquarters. It came on the morning 
of December 4, 1918, saying that the first liberty party 
of bluejackets from the fleet would arrive that evening. 



A ROYAL "BERTH-DECK" 257 

As the Courts were busy up to the very minute of their 
closing at 5.30 nothing could be done toward transforming 
the Great Hall until after that time, with an added interval 
to permit the last court employee and the last clerk to 
leave the great building. Early in the day it had been 
possible to move an adequate equipment of mattresses and 
blankets into the several drill halls and at once the Eed 
Gross turned these places over to the Y. M. C. A. for 
administration, in accordance with an agreement with that 
organization. 

On the stroke of half-past five the Ked Cross motor 
lorries began their task with the Great Hall. From the 
Southwark Warehouse in London twelve hundred mat- 
tresses and thirty-six hundred blankets, kept for just such 
an emergency, were broken out and loaded into the vans 
which ran back and forth between the warehouse and the 
Courts until all had been delivered. A corps of fifteen 
Red Cross men in the Great Hall stowed the bed gear in 
careful piles in the alcoves. Also they hung a huge Ameri- 
can flag and one equally large Eed Cross banner high 
across the lofty hall to give their unfailing greeting to the 
bluejackets. Meanwhile the canteen service was busy 
transporting its impedimenta of urns and cups and food, 
coffee, sandwiches, chocolate and buns, and " setting up 
shop " in the vaulted crypt. Eight energetic young women 
attended to that job and enlarged upon it a bit by decorat- 
ing their severe precincts with flags. 

It was at 9 o'clock that night that the first liberty party 
from the fleet arrived at Paddington Station in London. 
By that time the Royal Courts had been prepared and the 
Great Hall had relapsed into the silence of waiting. A 
detail of Red Cross men with packets of underground rail- 
way tickets in their hands were at the station to meet the 
sailors and escort twelve hundred of them to their strange 
" hotel/' the others being told off for a lodging in the 
London drill halls. 



258 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

The impression that the Great Hall of the Law Courts 
made upon the bluejackets as they piled into it will doubt- 
less remain with them for many a day. 

" Gee, Bill, we're in a church ! " one of them said in 
a half whisper as he stared about him, the clustered lights 
revealing the vastness of the place with its pillared, 
ecclesiastic-looking door-ways and its long rows of narrow, 
pointed, stained-glass windows. 

" Then you're out of luck, Bo," was the ready answer. 

" Shut up, you two," came in quick admonition from 
another. " Don't you know where you are ? You'll wake 
up the King in a minute and then you'll get merrihel." 

The marble statue of the architect of the great structure 
at the right of the entrance caught the eye of one of the 
guests. " Say, fellers," he called, jerking a nod toward 
it, " there's a guy what beat us to it and got a room ! " 

In the midst of the joking a bluejacket became really 
serious. " Stow that kidding stuff a minute, will you," 
he exclaimed, " and tell me what room this is ? " 

A shipmate wheeled on him with the answer. " Well, 
mister, since you ask," he said, " it's my room. Yours 
is 'No. 72 on the second floor. Here, boy, show the gentle- 
men up to 72." 

In all the joking and crowding and curiosity, the Red 
Cross men had to work quickly and sympathetically to get 
their charges in order. Each man was required to register, 
after which he received a billeting card and was told that 
the Red Cross canteen was open in the crypt and waiting 
for him. 

" And after you've had supper," Armstrong advised each 
squad as it passed, " you can go out and see the town. 
Come back here whenever you get sleepy. There's a mat- 
tress with three blankets for every man. You'll find them 
stacked in the alcoves. Bring them out here, if you want, 
or find a place for yourself anywhere in the corridors. 
This is your house now, and you don't need a latchkey ! " 

Most of the men, of course, hurried to the canteen where 



A ROYAL " BERTH-DECK " 259 

gallons of hot coffee and huge basketfuls of sandwiches and 
honey-spread buns had been prepared for them. Others, 
however, who felt that there wasn't anything new about 
eating, they could do that any old time, trailed out of the 
Hall and into the flow of the busy Strand. It cannot be 
said, however, that those who availed themselves of this 
initial canteen service dawdled very long over it. Within 
a short time they, too, had fared out into the crowded 
London streets. 

To a large majority of these men this was the first 
time they had ever come into contact with the American 
Ked Cross. Their arduous work in the northern waters, 
their isolation, as it were, from any such ministrations, had 
robbed them even of acquaintance with the Ked Cross. 
Most of them knew it only by hearsay and that at home. 
The result of this was a number of amusing but wholly for- 
givable misunderstandings on the part of some of those 
who came to the Great Hall of the Law Courts. They 
believed that payment for what they received was an in- 
evitable requirement, and scarcely one of the eight young 
women in the canteen failed of an experience with this 
belief. 

One of the first of these began with the offhand inquiry, 
" H.ow much, Sister ? " as a bluejacket set his cup on the 
canteen bar and reached into the pocket of his peajacket. 

" How much for what ? " the young woman asked, striv- 
ing to keep the twinkle out of her eye. 

" Let's see ; two cups of coffee, two sandwiches, a bun, 
a pack of cigarettes — oh, yes, and a bar of chocolate." 

The girl pretended to figure a moment and then replied, 
" That will cost you just — nothing at all ! " 

"You're joshing, ain't you, Sister?" Out came his 
hand with a tinkle of silver coins. He looked at her in- 
credulously as she turned to refill several cups from a 
steaming urn. When she came back to him he darted an- 
other question at her. " Say, are you Limies ? " 

The young woman who knew that this was the all-corn- 



260 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

prehensive sailor word for the English — a relic of the 
days when their ships were called " lhnejuicers " — shook 
her head. " No, we're Americans, just as you are. This 
is the American Red Cross. Do you mean to say you 
didn't see the hig flag when you came in \ " 

A wide grin broke across the sailor's face. " Excuse 
me, Sister; I'll take it all back," he stammered, " I thought 
I was three thousand miles from America ! " 

Later that same evening another bluejacket, just as in- 
tent upon paying for his supper, put a half-crown upon the 
counter. " Is that enough, Miss % " he asked. 

" No, it's a half-crown too much," was the canteen work- 
er's reply, trusting that her smile would explain. 

" I don't get you, Sister," the sailor confessed, looking 
dubiously at both her and the coin. " Nothing to pay ? " 

" Not a penny," the worker declared. " This is only 
a gift from yourself to yourself. It's your Red Cross, you 
know, not ours. The sailor hesitated between a blush and 
a grin, then, pocketing the money he leaned across the 
counter and said, " If that's so, Sister, I'll take another 
cup of my coffee ! " 

The coffee apparently was the hit of the evening and 
any number of bluejackets demonstrated the fact that for 
years the doctors have been all wrong about the liquid 
capacity of the human stomach. One of the men pro- 
claimed that it alone was worth a trip to London. 

" It's like the good old stuff we used to get at home," 
he explained to a worker between bites and sups as he 
hung about the coffee urns. " When do we begin paying, 
Sister ? " 

" You don't ever begin," was the amused answer, which 
halted the cup on its way to an open mouth. " By the 
way, your mother's a member of the Red Cross, isn't she % " 
the canteen girl asked. 

" She sure is," was the quick reply. " She knits and 
sews things for it. My sister's a member of it, too; she 
got up a concert for the last drive." 




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A ROYAL "BERTH-DECK" 261 

" Well, then, you can think that your mother made this 
coffee and your sister put the honey in the huns. They 
couldn't come over themselves to give them to you, so they 
sent us instead, do you see ? Now you don't want to pay, 
do you ? " 

The arrested cup went up again, raised this time to the 
level of one of the Ked Cross banners over the urns. 
" Here's to you, friend," said the sailor, with a nod to the 
banner, and drained the cup. 

" Thanks for that," the worker replied, with a quick 
little laugh. " And remember that wherever you see the 
flag of the American Ked Cross you can be sure that your 
mother and your sister have helped to put it there." 

The lure of London was quick to draw the remaining 
men away even from the attractions of the canteen and 
within half an hour the Great Hall was once more prac- 
tically deserted. But in the crypt there was no resting, be- 
cause in a few hours the sailors would come trooping in 
again, just as hungry as before. So the coffee urns were 
refilled and all hands fell to preparing the dripping honey 
buns. 

It was, perhaps, half an hour after midnight that the 
returning began, the men drifting in by twos and threes, 
some of them promptly setting a course for the canteen, 
others foot-weary and glad to turn in at once. Although 
the Navy had provided a police detail, there never was a 
crowd more easily managed, and this held true to the 
very end of the visit. Practically the only service the 
police had to render was to indicate the four long lines 
with a wide aisle down the center, in which the sailors 
were to lay their mattresses. If, however, they preferred 
to go off in corners by themselves they were at liberty 
to do it. Each man had his three blankets with his mat- 
tress and as the Great Hall was, in addition, well heated, 
the berthing was eminently comfortable. 

The homing of the bluejackets was somewhat of the 
nature of a procession since it required nearly three hours 



262 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

to pass a given point — the portal of the Great Hall. But 
eventually every man straggled in and generally by three 
o'clock all was quiet. 

In order that the Great Hall might be put all ship- 
shape and Bristol fashion in readiness for the Court pro- 
cedure of the day, it was necessary to turn out the men at 
7 o'clock in the morning. So at that time with the cus- 
tomary admonitions to " bear a hand " and " shake a leg," 
the Navy police got the crowd awake and stirring. Each 
man was required to fold his blankets carefully, put them 
on his mattress and stow the bedding in regular piles in 
the alcoves. Then, after a visit to the washroom, where 
the Eed Cross had provided an abundance of towels, soap 
and hairbrushes, the hungry crew trooped into the canteen 
for breakfast. Meanwhile a squad had been set to work 
sweeping the Hall, the flags were taken down and put 
away and, in due time, the canteen equipment itself fol- 
lowed, being loaded in trucks and returned to headquarters. 
And by half-past eight o'clock the Great Hall had been 
so well restored to its normal state that even the crustiest, 
most suspicious of snuffy old barristers would never have 
known that it had been used as a " bedroom " for 1,200 
American sailors. 

At the time that these men from the Grand Fleet visited 
London, liberty parties from American destroyers, chasers, 
mine layers and sweepers, dispatch and supply boats on 
duty along the coasts were still coming to the city. 
Nightly possession of the Royal Courts was a great aid in 
solving the problem of providing quarters for them. And 
again it was by resort to the potent bus-method. Two of 
these heavy passenger " Ships of the Streets " were chart- 
ered by the Red Cross, tricked out with big side banners 
bearing the world-known emblem and canvas signs pro- 
claiming, as before: 

U. S. NAVY 
SLEEPING 
QUARTERS 



A ROYAL " BERTH-DECK " 263 

and these fastened high upon the superstructures so that 
any one might read without running. The busses were to 
serve a double purpose, gathering up also any of the Law 
Courts' guests who had lost their way or their billet cards 
or both. 

The vehicles went into commission on the second night 
at 9 o'clock, each of them manned by two members of the 
fatigueless " Flying Squadron " of the Emergency Bureau. 
The only sailing directions they gave the drivers were 
to cruise up and down the Strand and the main streets 
leading from Trafalgar Square and to stop whenever the 
bell rang. The emergency men required no other instruc- 
tions than to pick up any American sailor who wanted 
supper, a warm bed, and breakfast and take him to the 
Law Courts. For seven hours, from nine o'clock until 
four in the morning, they cruised the streets in their rock- 
ing craft and, as a result, gathered in at least a hundred 
men that night and, in fact, every other night that the 
service was maintained. All that this added number of 
men necessitated was an increased supply of mattresses and 
blankets which were readily forthcoming from the Red 
Cross warehouse, and more food supplies, as promptly ob- 
tainable. 

The popularity of the Law Courts as a billet was mani- 
fest from the very beginning and, far from being like cats 
in a strange garret, the men made the stately enclosure 
echo with songs. Every night the arches rang with " The 
Long, Long Trail," " Keep the Home Eires Burning," and 
" Over There ! " It became veritably a sailor's club and, 
that the men might have an appropriate souvenir of it, the 
Red Cross provided them with post cards showing the in- 
terior of the Great Hall, which were mailed to the States 
in thousands with many such jocular comments penned 
upon them as, " How's this for a shake down ? " " This 
was my little shanty for two weeks," " I've put a cross 
where I slept last night. I'll bet you don't have a room 
like this for me when I get home." 



264 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

One of the gala nights in the Hall was, of course, that 
of the dance to the startling syncopations of the Naval 
" Jazz Band." It was play, so far as the sailors were con- 
cerned, but it meant unceasing work to the young women 
of the canteen, for they were eight among eight hundred 
and every mother's son of the eight hundred bent upon 
dancing. The rush for these young women following the 
opening bars of the waltzes and one-steps, the energetic 
" cutting in " which limited a bluejacket to scarcely more 
than half a dozen steps with his partner and the hey !-port- 
your-helm-bump-crash dancing of the men with their own 
shipmates made for a merry confusion such as those gray 
walls will never see again. 

Another gala night came when Admiral Sims, Senior 
Officer of the American Naval Forces, and several 
members of his staff visited the Hall. The assembled blue- 
jackets gave him a cheer that set the flags a-flutter. He 
was frankly surprised at the completeness of the com- 
fort which had been provided for the men and the care 
bestowed upon giving them supper and breakfast. And 
as his eyes ranged down the great chamber, far above 
the heads of the men, to the pillared doorways, the churchly 
windows and the sweep of the massive walls, he smiled, 
as if at some flashing thought. Few are permitted to ask 
a Senior Officer what he is thinking, but it is fair to hazard 
a guess that he was saying to himself, " What an amazing 
berth-deck ! " 



CHAPTER XV 

THE CLUBMEN OF MORN HIEL 

" And we're go-ing back 

" 'Cause it's over over here ! " 

THE paraphrased song ended with a mighty thump of 
a chord, two whole handfuls of keys, and the soldier 
in the British uniform swung himself around on the piano 
stool for two revolutions by way of joyous emphasis. 

While he was still spinning, even before the thunder had 
died in the recesses of the piano, another soldier, at the 
far end of the long room, with a brass Welsh leek on 
his cap, apparently deep in a newspaper, was stirred as by 
harmonic vibration. Without lifting his eyes from the 
page he voiced his reply : 

" Yea, Bo!" 

It was only one voice but it had the volume and the 
sincerity of a choral amen. It spoke of everything that 
had been in his breast, in the breasts of all of them, for 
days. The piano player and the others laughed, but their 
hearts responded with a leaping eagerness that went thrill- 
ing all through them. And there was not one whose mind 
did not spring from the confines of that room, speed across 
England and the wide Atlantic and alight in some 
cherished place in America. For it was over, over here 
and they were just awaiting the word which would re- 
lease them to follow that flight to the place which each 
called " home." It made no difference whatever that these 
men wore the King's unifoum, all their thoughts were 
turned toward America, because they were Americans and, 
furthermore, they were on an American Island in the 

265 



266 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

midst of an English Sea. The flag of their own country 
was flying by the doorway, the American Red Cross 
banner beside it and they were in their own United States 
— almost. 

Their long, low building lay at the edge of a dusty road 
which dropped away to the distant level where, in the 
warm sunshine, Winchester drowsed about its gray Cathe- 
dral towers. All around it were gathered the flat, unin- 
spiring buildings of a great camp ; they flanked the yellow 
highway and rose across the hills in ugly, orderly rows. 
But it was of two-fold interest to Americans, this roll- 
ing, treeless countryside, for it was Morn Hill Rest Camp, 
the first mobilization point for the United States troops 
as they landed from the fleet of transports which had hur- 
ried them into action two years before. Here in their 
thousands they had halted for a few days of rest in the 
journey across England to the coast where troopships were 
waiting to bear them to France. And here, too, when 
this was written, in June, 1919, was the great demobiliza- 
tion center for the legion of Americans who had enlisted 
in the armies of Great Britain, had honorably completed 
their service and were entitled to be sent back across the 
sea. 

The choice of Morn Hill as a military clearing-house 
of this kind was a happy one. It served to give Win- 
chester still another association with Americans, such co- 
horts of whom it had seen in the days when this was an 
American camp. Indeed, Winchester had already made 
preparation for a lasting memorial to the arms of her 
Western ally, for in the venerable Cathedral, on an aisle 
set apart to proclaim and commemorate the losses suffered 
by British regiments in many wars, the Dean and Chapter 
had reserved a window and the deep panels beneath it 
" For the Dedication of a Perpetual Memorial to be 
Erected by the British Nation to Those Gallant Americans 
Who Have Given Their Lives for the Cause of Freedom 
in the Great War." 



THE CLUBMEN OF MORN HILL 267 

At the sweeping outbreak of hostilities in Europe in 
1914, varying emotions of sentiment, sympathy and ad- 
venture had impelled great numbers of Americans — their 
own country seemingly disposed to remain neutral — to 
seek service against the German. Some hastened across 
the northern boundary and enlisted in Canadian con- 
tingents, others went to England and joined the ranks of 
famous British regiments. It was supposed that by the 
time the United States entered the general conflict at least 
20,000 Americans had taken the King's Shilling. But 
when the repatriation bureau was opened at Morn Hill in 
the spring of 1919 and men began to come forward to claim 
discharge and passage back to the States the mounting 
figures led to a reasonable estimate that, with all casual- 
ties included, the number of Americans who served under 
British colors was about one hundred thousand. 

These were the men who were now gathered at Morn 
Hill from every part of the world to which the Great War 
had summoned British fighting men — France, Belgium, 
Italy, Palestine, Salonica, Turkey, Macedonia, Russia, 
Singapore, German South-west Africa, these and many 

others throughout the Eastern Hemisphere to be held 

under indulgent discipline until ships could be found to 
take them home. For all Americans who served under 
the Union Jack, wherever it may have flown, with the 
exception of those who elected to return to Canada with 
the units in which they had enlisted, were required to pass 
through this camp for inspection, interrogation, and dis- 
charge. They had to produce their papers and clearly 
substantiate their claim to discharge and transportation 
home. Frequently this was no easy matter. A man 
might have enlisted in Canada, fought on two or three 
fronts and served in several different units in widely 
separated parts of the fighting world. In such case his 
entire record had to be collected from regimental archives 
and tabulated before he could even begin to see a sailing 
date on the far horizon. 



268 THE PASSING LEOIONS 

This process was necessarily circumscribed by official 
regulation and for that reason often long and always 
wearying to the men. The war, with its adventurings, its 
hazards, its exhilaration even to those whose services lay 
miles back of the lines, was at an end; the men had little 
to do now save long for the home-faring day. 

Like a god-send the American Red Cross came to them. 

The British military authorities had done everything 
within power and regulation to make them comfortable, 
but they missed America and American things and Ameri- 
can voices, from which they had so long been cut off. 
Through four and a half years many of them had fought 
side by side with the men of another race, they had ap- 
propriated the stranger slang and habits, they were, to all 
appearances, British Tommies, but under the tunics were 
hearts that yearned for homes very far from the dusty 
Winchester downs. They were lonesome. There was not 
even the comfort of being with their own old regiments. 
The men they had met in the comradeship of arms were 
scattered to a hundred places. Some were at home, others 
were in hospital, many were in their graves. Now had 
they come among chance strangers — even the Americans 
were strangers — to wait and wait and wait. They 
wanted America and nothing could even remotely 
assuage the longing until the Red Cross came and estab- 
lished the club for them — the long, low building in which 
the piano player had sung his song and called forth that 
heartfelt amen. 

When it was realized that the official procedure involved 
in the discharge of the American volunteers and their as- 
signment to a westbound troopship might mean detention 
at Morn Hill for a month or more, the Red Cross estab- 
lished a combined club and canteen. This would suffice 
for the needs of those lucky enough to be quickly away, 
for the others who might, days on end, await release, and 
be ready also, even with a bit of tradition behind it, when 



THE CLUBMEN OF MORN HILL 269 

the Americans should drift in from the distant British 
units in India, Egypt and Mesopotamia. 

The building granted for the purpose by General Mc- 
Pherson, the "CO.," was one which had been used hither- 
to as a storehouse for Ked Cross reserve medical supplies. 
It was near the center of the encampment, a structure one 
hundred and fifty feet long and fifty feet wide and beyond 
being weather-proof, was nothing more than four walls and 
a roof when it came a second time into Ked Cross hands. 
And then, one rare spring day, Miss Lilian Baldwin, of 
Lakewood, N. J., who for many months had directed Eed 
Cross canteen work at the American Base Hospital at Dart- 
ford, arrived at Morn Hill to start — literally, to create — 
the club. 

Whether she had or had not reckoned upon the Ameri- 
cans in the camp to aid her, they turned out by hundreds 
to lend a hand the day she appeared. They were so eager 
to help and there were so many of them demanding jobs 
that Miss Baldwin had to divide them into squads and dele- 
gate special tasks to each in order that they might not be 
forever tumbling over one another. One detachment laid 
thick linoleum, another hung curtains, a third hammered 
bookshelves together, and a fourth strung lines of allied 
flags along the rafters. Easy chairs, tables and writing- 
desks, a pianola, two pianos and a victrola were moved 
in, the " Buckshee " counter — the center of that little 
universe — was set up, a small kitchen was built " out 
back " — and the empty, resounding storehouse had become 
an American club! Then came the flag-raising on the 
inaugural day, with the " C. O." and his staff attending 
and the roars of cheers from eight hundred enthusiastic 
Americans. 

That was a day ! 

It is not possible to set down here the " heart " that 
spoke in what the American Tommies said that day as they 
hailed the opening of their club. It was bluff to the point 



270 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

of obviously hiding a swift and deep emotion, it was care- 
less and jocular, although one knew by the timbre of the 
laugh that it came from a lump in the throat — and it was 
sometimes frank to the point of sudden speechlessness. 
An indescribable mixture of the slang of two peoples ac- 
claimed the U. S. A., the Red Cross, Miss Baldwin, the 
coffee and pie, the cigarettes and tobacco, the rocking- 
chairs, the two-weeks-old newspapers, everything that the 
club offered to those men, starving for the home things. 
They danced around, banging one another on the back, and 
probably would have hugged Miss Baldwin to breathless- 
ness had they dared. 

A membership roster was begun that day — the sole 
requirement being American nationality — and the reg- 
istration showed that the Americans then in camp who 
had served with the British forces had come from thirty- 
one different States, from the District of Columbia, from 
Alaska, even from Hawaii, half-way round the world. 
They had belonged to some of the most distinguished regi- 
ments of the British Army, the Royal Horse Guards, the 
Grenadiers, the Dragoons, the Welsh Guards, the Cold- 
streams, the Cameron Highlanders, the Lancers, the 
" Death or Glory Boys," the Princess Pat's, the Prince of 
Wales' Fusiliers. There were scores of sleeves there bear- 
ing the red chevron of 1914. 

But, come into the club, see the men and talk with them 
and learn for yourself what a haven it is. 

There is a youngster at the piano, of course — there 
always is, because in homesickness and in health, in sor- 
row and in anger, sometimes in sheer cruelty, the male 
human, in gatherings of his kind, invariably exerts himself 
upon the most convenient musical instrument. Three 
others are beside him, two of them singing at the top of 
voice and ability, the third rummaging through a pile of 
music for a favorite song. The sound wings out through 
the doorway as if to call the men from the barracks. They 



THE CLUBMEN OF MORN HILL 271 

come over the hills, along the dusty road, calling greetings, 
running a few steps to catch up with a little party ahead. 
Tanned almost to the color of their war-worn uniforms, 
wearing the glittering brass badges of well-known regi- 
ments, they are not in any way distinguishable from the 
Britons with whom they now share the camp above Win- 
chester. A few yards beyond the narrow wooden walk 
which leads across the uneven ground between roadside 
and doorway, a gang of German prisoners is carrying steel 
rails to the head of a new spur track. One of the Ameri- 
cans, his foot on the threshold, calls out an impersonal 
offer : 

" Hey, Fritz, I'll give you a piece of pie for that rail ! " 

The prisoners look around with a grin as they disap- 
pear past a corner of the building. 

With a clatter of heavy, hobbed boots the men file 
through the narrow roadway, each displaying his club 
membership card to the corporal at the little desk by the 
entrance. Some of the newcomers have British Tommies 
in tow; for each of the Americans is permitted one daily 
guest from the camp and is proud of the privilege. Scat- 
tered about the big room are a hundred or more of their 
fellows, playing checkers or chess, reading, writing letters 
or drowsing in the enfolding arms of deep chairs, reveling 
in the relaxation of unbuttoned tunics and an unsoldierly, 
star-fish sprawl. 

Now Miss Baldwin takes you under her wing and 
sketches her club members for you. The two boys, one 
with a violin under his arm, who have just been urged 
up to the piano, used to be in a roof garden orchestra in 
New York. On their caps are the sacred seven-branched 
candlesticks of the Jewish regiment which, under British 
officers, fought in Palestine for the deliverance of the land 
of their forefathers. Two men in a fairly quiet corner 
are making the last strategic moves in a game of checkers, 
an interested audience in stockade around them. The 
elder player, the club champion, is a Scotch- American who 



272 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

had been a track-walker on one of the Southern railway 
lines before joining an artillery brigade in 1915. His 
brother, who enlisted with him, had been gassed and was 
buried in Belgium. His opponent across the board, with 
the engineers device and the sergeant's chevrons, is a 
sturdy son of Wisconsin. The red chevron he wears is 
the treasured symbol of 1914 but not, in his case, for serv- 
ice either in France or Belgium in that memorable year. 
It stands for the campaign " down German West," as 
South Africans abbreviate it. This was the one in which 
German South West Africa was completely conquered. 
Over an area nearly twice as great as that of European 
Germany the British forces and the Boers fought shoulder 
to shoulder, sharing the privations and vicissitudes of war- 
fare almost primitive in its tactics, long intervals of 
" trekking " following the engagements and blackwater 
fever more certain of victims than bullets. In the enclos- 
ing group a red-haired youth in the first of his twen- 
ties — the one with the cap set rakishly over an ear — has 
been in the Army Service Corps and done his bit from 
helping the stevedores on the wharves of Salonica to carry- 
ing up supplies through the mountain passes of Macedonia. 
The man with the " Royal Air Force " arched across his 
shoulder seam, writing post cards at the desk by the 
window, is from Tennessee, an expert motor mechanic 
whose father owns a garage; the elated one who has just 
this moment won $260 from himself at " Canfield," is a 
Texan, a horse-artilleryman who was with the guns at 
Ypres — see the red chevron ? — and the fellow lounging 
in, who has a broad scar across his cheek, is a Californian, 
prouder of Los Angeles than of the scar and the service 
stripes. He was with the Canadians at Cambrai. 

And so it goes from man to man, every branch of the 
British service represented by these American volunteers, 
They had sweated at the docks of half a dozen countries 
to keep the war gear flowing to the front ; they had handled 
munitions on the mysterious train-ferry between Eng- 



THE CLUBMEN OF MORN HILL 2Y3 

land and France — one of the few secrets of the war which 
remained a secret until the Armistice was concluded — 
they had crouched, too, on the fire-step, awaiting the " zero 
hour " to go over the top — and they had gone so often, a 
few of them, that they risked belief in telling of it. There 
had been no fighting in any part of the world during the 
last five years, from the Singapore mutiny to the Egyptian 
trouble, from the conquest of the German islands in the 
South Pacific to the turmoil in the six-months' night of the 
Murmansk winter, in which one or another of the men 
who were drifting into this Red Cross club had not taken 
part. And every last one of them was an American ! 

Suddenly, from a distance not too great to mar either 
distinctness or meaning, come the sounds of pouring water, 
of a tin -cup clanking against another, of dishes being 
moved about. And then, in just a little while, the in- 
sinuating odor of coffee ! 

The men look up and sniff, with much wrinkling of 
noses. Were it not for possible misconstruction derogatory 
to Miss Baldwin's brew, it might be said that most of the 
club members look as if they expected a gas alarm. But 
the smile that comes not later than the second sniff dis- 
pels this uncharitable similitude and hopeful eyes turn 
toward the " Buckshee " counter. Miss Baldwin, ener- 
gized, apparently, by the same sounds and odor, runs off 
with an I'11-be-back-in-a-minute wave of the hand to dis- 
appear into the kitchen. This seems to be a generally ac- 
cepted signal, for instantly most of the men in the room 
put aside their games and diversions and advance in mass 
attack upon the counter. 

Now " Buckshee " means " free " — one of the clubmen 
(quite a metropolitan sound, that!) credited it to New 
Zealand, another to Australia, a third said he had picked 
it up in Egypt, so there's a choice of sponsors — and at this 
counter along the wall opposite the entrance doorway the 
men receive twice daily all they wish of coffee, its team- 
mate the doughnut and pie (on special days) and sand- 



274 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

wiches. At one end of it is a deep canister of tobacco 
bearing the admonitory legend : " Don't fill your 

POCKET FILL YOUK PIPE OK ROLL A CIGARETTE," and 

flanked by a box of cigarette papers. 

The mass attack, as it goes forward, resolves itself into 
a shuffling line with an occasional rough, good-natured 
contest for priority. It is one of Miss Baldwin's regula- 
tions that the men must come up to the counter in single 
file and behave themselves, or seem to. Impatience always 
bends the line into a sharp curve as it stretches down the 
room and likewise flings more than one pointed suggestion 
to the loiterer at the head for the love o' some deity to 
get his chow and move on. 

As soon as a man is served he balances his cup and 
plate into a convenient corner and gives himself up to a 
blissful content — knowing that he can go back for more 
till contents spells content. And between either bite or 
sup he will tell you how much his club means to him. 

" It's hearing American spoken that gets closest to me," 
one of them explained, adding in the same breath, " but 
that's not saying a word against this coffee and doughnuts 
and the real American cigarettes Miss Baldwin gives us. 
I'm from Seattle — that's the place ! — and I've been sort 
of everything in this man's army — infantry, artillery, 
tanks — nearly three years of it, and up to two weeks ago 
I thought I'd have to wait six months before I could see 
anything that looked anyways like home. But me and the 
other boys stepped right into the old U. S. A. the day the 
flags went up over this building. And, believe me, I've 
been nearer home in this shack than I was in the barracks 
at Halifax. Why? 'Cause I've written more letters 
home in the last two weeks at that old desk down there than 
I ever did in all my life. Miss Baldwin came up to me 
the first day I dropped in and said, i Why don't you write 
the folks and tell 'em about the club and the coffee and 
things ? ' She gave me some paper and envelopes and a 
stamp, and just so's not to disappoint her I wrote to my 



THE CLUBMEN OF MORN HILL 275 

mother. She'll think I've gone bugs to send her eight 
pages when she said she'd be happy if she only got a postal 
card every week. After that I sort o' got the habit, 'cause 
next day Miss Baldwin gave me an American magazine 
and a Coast newspaper and I had to tell the Missus all 
about that, too. I know they'll think I'm looney at home, 
but I haven't had anything like this for nearly three years 
and, well, I guess I must have gone dippy over it, all 
right." 

An elder man, grizzled and lined, with A. S. C. on his 
shoulder straps, puts down his cup, loosens his belt and 
develops a slow smile. 

" What do I think of the club ? Better you should ask 
me what I know, for it's then I can sing to you. But 
wouldn't you rather know first that I'm fifty-six years old, 
so it's no giddy boy telling you a tale ? And of course you 
never guessed I was Irish — no, you thought the brogue 
was Persian, now didn't you ? " 

This brings a laugh from the little circle of listeners 
and the Irishman himself pauses to smile again, his head 
cocked aside like a robin's. 

" But let's be getting on," he says, " I'm from South 
Boston — County South, I call it — and yet for all that 
they'd not let me get up to the scrapping. I guess they 
thought I was too old. They put me in the Army Serv- 
ice Corps and the first work I had was bringing copper 
shell bands across from Pittsburgh. It didn't seem like 
battle to me, but it didn't do much to help the German 
cause. And then I had two years of it in Belgium and 
Prance. It wasn't so bad at first, but after a while the 
lonesome sickness took hold of me and I'd 'a' given half 
my right eye for a sight of the old lady and the children, 
or even Bunker Hill Monument. Maybe I got old all of 
a sudden, I dunno. However, they ordered me down here 
and it sort o' eased my mind. Yes, till I'd been here a 
month, hanging about, nothing to do but wait. I'd have 
rowed home if they'd let me. I would that ! 



276 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

" And then one day what happens ? The Red Cross 
brings a little slice of America out here and spreads it sort 
o' thin so's to cover a lot of space, and hoists the flags to 
show it's America, and here it is, just where you're stand- 
ing. It's home to me, more, I guess, than it is to any of 
these laddies here. They've had the exciting things to keep 
'em going — adventures, they call 'em — but I've had none 
o' that; I've never even heard the guns but twice. It's 
been hard work all the time and I'm tired and — a man 
thinks more of home when he's fifty-six and has a good one 
waiting for him. This is the nearest thing to it that I've 
had since I joined up, because my detachment never ran 
into the American Red Cross while we were in service. 
I guess we were in too out-of-the-way places. Until I 
came in here I hadn't seen an American woman or heard 
one of 'em talk for two years. I didn't care then where 
I sat down, 'cause all the places looked strange to me. But 
in here I'm more than halfway home, and if they don't 
find a steamer for me this week, why I'll come here and 
talk about South Boston to Miss Baldwin and let it go at 
that ! And now I've talked myself dry and I'll go get my- 
self another cup o' coffee." 

What any of the other men have to say is little more 
than a variant of this. Services differed, as did experi- 
ences, but every man agrees, each in his own phrasing, 
that this Bed Cross club is " the nearest thing to home " 
he has found in the Old World. It provides, as you see, 
a place in which he can find rest, recreation and companion- 
ship of his own people, his familiar newspaper, a bit old, 
perhaps, but welcome, whatever the date, and happier sur- 
roundings in which to discuss the one, heart-filling topic — 
the chance of having his demobilization papers signed in 
time for the next ship home. 

Now that you have met Miss Baldwin, the moment has 
come to disclose a remarkable feature of the club. It is 
that under the Red Cross, Miss Baldwin founded it alone 
and conducted it alone to its closing day, with a staff of 



THE CLUBMEN OF MORN HILL 277 

ten or a dozen " orderlies/' assigned to the duty by the 
" 0. O.," as her only aids. She was, from the beginning, 
the only woman about the place, the only " officer," the 
sole " Big Sister " to the thousands of Americans passing 
through the camp on their eager homeward way. 

Realizing her task, she sought in innumerable ways to 
interest her clubmen, to keep them not only off the Win- 
chester streets and in the club, but from eating their hearts 
out in longing for release. She arranged special evenings 
for the men of certain States in order to bring these 
kindred souls together. She interrogated the entire mem- 
bership roster to discover musicians and had them give 
concerts. She decreed "honey days/' " jam days/' a pie 
days " that she might win their affection by the proverbial 
route. And every venture was a success. The time came 
when the men so filled the place with music or clamorings 
for honey and pie that the more nervous letter-writers gave 
up in despair. 

" Are they not a wonderful lot of boys ? " Miss Baldwin 
asks with shining eyes as she comes from behind the " buck- 
shee " counter. There are more than three hundred of 
her clubmen in the room, half of them eating, the others 
awaiting turn in the long curving line. A Highlander has 
just brought in a second hot urn of coffee. The " fatigue 
detail " is attending to the service, passing out the filled 
enamel-ware cups, the jam sandwiches and the cigarettes. 

" I consider every one of these men a hero," she adds, 
" because none was compelled, either by patriotism or the 
draft, to come into the war. These men chose to come, 
they volunteered. While scores joined up with the British 
long before America entered the conflict, many had been 
rejected by our own recruiting boards as unfit for military 
service. If you look about, you'll see that some of them 
are thin and undersized, some wear glasses, others have fin- 
gers or an eye missing or are slightly malformed and still 
others are far past military age. But they wanted to go in, 
to help in any way they could. Their own country, with 



278 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

so many able-bodied men available, bad no use for them, 
so they went to tbe nearest Britisb recruiting station and 
offered themselves. Great Britain needed every man she 
conld get, so sbe took tbem eagerly, listing tbem as ' low 
category ' men for service at tbe rear. Tbey were destined 
to plod through the war, not to catch even one reflection of 
its brilliance, and they knew it. But they went in. 
That's what I think is so wonderful in them and what 
they've done. 

" Ko one who has not lived and worked among them can 
understand what this club means to them. Whatever their 
service, they have been among a stranger people, some of 
them in detached units in which there was not another 
American. The talk of home they heard all about them 
was of alien cities and countrysides, of places they'd never 
even heard of. 'No one ever spoke of America and no one 
understood or cared when they spoke of it. 

" And those who came late into the ranks were thrown 
all at once among the veterans of three years, war-weary 
men little minded to give thought to a newcomer or seek 
or value his friendship. These newcomers had no 
dramatic personal experiences to offer, nothing to make 
themselves interesting enough to be listened to when the 
yarn-spinning began. But they served well for all that, 
their hearts far sturdier than their bodies. 

" Now, after it is all over, they have come here and 
found a place which is all American, where they hear Eng- 
lish spoken in their own way with the almost forgotten 
slang, where they find an American woman ready to listen 
to outpouring of everything that has been so long locked up 
in their breasts. I've seen them come into that doorway 
and stop, agape, scarcely believing they'd found this Amer- 
ican island. I won't say that I've seen tears in their eyes 
because — well, for several reasons. But I know, deep 
down in my heart, just how great a help this little club is to 
these boys of mine. 

" And I am the only one who truly knows what a happi- 



THE CLUBMEN OF MORN HILL 279 

ness it is to me to care for them. When they tell me their 
troubles, show me photographs of girls ( back home ' and 
read me their letters from oversea, then I feel that I must 
have been of some help to them. JNot one of them will 
ever forget this Red Cross club — nor shall I." 

On the wall back of the " buckshee " counter hangs a 
rough wool sweater, the pride of Miss Baldwin's life. 
Fastened upon it in such numbers that it looks like a shirt 
of mail, are the metal cap and collar devices of most of 
the famous regiments of the British Army, all affixed there 
by Americans who served in them. There are more than 
250 of these badges, each given to Miss Baldwin in re- 
membrance by a member of the club. And here and there, 
to add a bit of color to the thing, a man has pinned either 
his wound stripe or the ribbon of his medal, and another 
has stuck in a button or two from a German uniform. 

There is a vivid chapter of the Great War in that keep- 
sake sweater. It is the story of a British Foreign Legion 
of a hundred thousand Crusaders. 



CHAPTER XVI 

HEEE AND THEBE IN BRITAIN" 

THE historic city of Cambridge was selected as a center 
for Red Cross work among two score or more small 
American camps in east-central England. Hospital serv- 
ice embraced fifty-five British and American hospitals, in- 
cluding six at Cambridge, four at Norwich, three each at 
Stamford and Wisbach and others at such places as Dux- 
ford, Eeltwell (not a bad name for a hospital town), Fowl- 
mere, Harling Road and Spittlegate. In eight camps Red 
Cross infirmaries were established. 

Erom Cambridge the distance covered by the Red Cross 
headquarters was so great in the matter of attending to all 
the outlying points that the officer in command spent most 
of his time " on the road." The camp nearest the Cam- 
bridge office was eight miles away and the most remote more 
than seventy miles, but every camp was visited at least 
twice a month and every large hospital weekly. Prac- 
tically all the camps in this area were British to which 
American units of fifty to 500 men had been attached, the 
total number of Americans in the district being about 
4,000. 

When the Red Cross representative visited one of these 
small camps he first obtained from the commanding officer 
a list of the needs of the detachment and when these could 
not be immediately supplied from the loaded lorry which 
carried him about the countryside like a peddler, requisi- 
tions were immediately forwarded to Cambridge and the 
things delivered by another truck while he kept on his 
round of visits. Aside from the usual articles of comfort 

and personal use, the Red Cross furnished the camps with 

280 



HERE AND THERE IN BRITAIN 281 

bathing equipment, barbering outfits, and camp-hospital re- 
quisites. At one station where 100 men were billeted in 
scattered houses over a wide area, each man had to bring 
his mess kit to the central hall for every meal. At the re- 
quest of the area inspector the Bed Cross provided the mess 
hall with all necessary equipment so that the men were no 
longer required to lug their pots and pans and things with 
them. 

Oxford was another center of camp activities, less im- 
portant than Cambridge but covering a wide area which in- 
cluded eight American camps and a considerable number of 
British hospitals holding American soldiers. A canteen 
was established at Oxford for men from all the camps who 
usually spent their " days off " in the delightful aniversity 
town, and this canteen was in operation at the end of the 
year. 

Most important centers of hospital service in this area 
were at Bath, Bristol, Cheltenham and in the town of Ox- 
ford itself. Bed Cross infirmaries were set up in five 
camps. There was a good deal of variation in the number 
of Americans in the camps thereabout, but it averaged 
1,400, month in, month out. These men were employed 
mainly in British aerodromes as engineers and mechanics 
and in work incident to the repair and general up-keep of 
air-service equipment. They were in charge of American 
officers and each squadron had its own medical man. As 
an example of the service performed for these men, the 
camp at Port Meadow was a so-called " temporary camp " 
of tents and was without adequate infirmary provision. 
The British quartermaster supplied a large marquee tent 
and this was furnished by the Bed Cross with a regulation 
six-bed infirmary equipment, including bath tubs and water 
heaters, and the medical officer received a fund for the 
special requirements of patients, fresh eggs and milk and 
the like. At Bendcombe the camp was similarly supplied 
and as soon as possible infirmaries were provided at three 
other camps. They were of highest value when the " flu " 



282 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

hit the camps and spread among the 1,200 men of the area. 
Fortunately only six deaths occurred. 

Storehouses were being erected for the American Army 
at Didcot and as the camp was on damp ground, the Red 
Cross put up huts for the workmen and furnished them 
completely, giving thus comfortable accommodations for 
250 men. 

In addition to the infirmary features of Red Cross work, 
the comfort and welfare of the hale and hearty men were 
constantly considered and considerable quantities of cloth- 
ing, toilet articles and reading matter were distributed. 
When the sick men were sent to British hospitals, the Red 
Cross followed them with its ministrations. 

During the autumn, the arrival of large convoys of 
wounded Aanericans from the Western Front at these 
British hospitals in the Oxford area added a new task to 
the duties of the Red Cross men stationed there. 

The Bristol district was created in October by reason of 
the large influx of American patients to the British hospi- 
tals at Bristol, Bath, Gloucester and Cheltenham, these 
cities being comprised in the British hospital region known 
as the " Second Southern General." In Bristol alone there 
were five main hospitals in which Americans were received 
and in the whole district there were not less than fifteen 
British hospitals which suddenly became important places 
for Red Cross work. There was also a certain amount of 
service for the naval vessels coming into Bristol and Avon- 
mouth and for casual troops travelling across England. 

At the time the American Red Cross office was opened 
there were about 800 American patients in the British hos- 
pitals of the district and this number so rapidly increased 
that within two weeks it had reached more than 1,200. 
The influenza epidemic brought a heavy task with it. In a 
single arriving convoy of 300 wounded there were seventy- 
five " flu " cases for which the Red Cross furnished special 
foods and medicines. It was planned at this time to open 
a special Red Cross convalescent hospital but the situation 



HERE AND THERE IN BRITAIN 283 

moderated so soon that it was not begun. There were 450 
American patients in hospital at Thanksgiving time and 
convalescents were entertained at celebration dinners and 
those unable to attend were supplied with boxes filled with 
such things as the doctors permitted them to have. By the 
end of the year, the number of wounded in the Bristol dis- 
trict had decreased to 200, practically all of whom were 
evacuated a short time afterward. The number of deaths 
was only six, all from influenza. 

Still another center of camp service was Lincoln, in cen- 
tral England, from which the Bed Cross visited a dozen 
small Ajnerican camps and five British hospitals. Bed 
Cross camp infirmaries were established in nine camps, in- 
cluding the one at Killingholme, the largest American avia- 
tion camp and of peculiar significance to Americans. It 
was at Immingham, near there, that the Pilgrim Fathers 
lived and the church in which they offered prayers for 
safety before going to Plymouth to embark for Massachu- 
setts is still standing. 

The total number of American soldiers in the district 
was about 6,000 as it comprised so large a territory that a 
Bed Cross trip of inspection " around the loop " meant a 
journey of 320 miles. The supplies furnished were of 
great variety, ranging from razor blades to a complete 
printing-press outfit sent to the Killingholme camp. All 
Americans in hospital were visited at least twice a week, 
the Bed Cross Divisional Commander taking with him a 
great load of supplies and materially lightening his burden 
at every stopping place. 

Early in October the influenza reached the Lincoln area 
and at one time there were twenty-seven American cases 
in one of the hospitals. The Bed Cross staff worked all 
around the clock for many days, providing bedding, med- 
icines and general hospital supplies. Twice during the 
epidemic the Divisional Commander was attacked by the 
disease but managed to fight it off. 



284 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

IN FAR SCOTLAND 

Nearly a year before the United States entered the war 
a Red Cross Care Committee of American women was 
formed at Edinburgh, with Mrs. Rufus Fleming, wife of 
the American consul, as chairman. Its work at that time 
was taking care of the numerous Americans who had joined 
the English or Canadian forces and had found their way 
into the Scottish hospitals among the sick or the casualties. 
There was often considerable difficulty in locating these 
men, as the majority had intentionally concealed their 
identity and nationality upon joining the British forces. 
However, the Care Committee at Edinburgh went about 
finding these boys in business-like fashion and every im- 
portant hospital in or near the city had a poster on the 
wall of every ward announcing : 

EDINBURGH CARE COMMITTEE 

for 

AMERICAN" SOIDIERS AND SAILORS 
Mrs. Rufus Fleming, 71, George Street, Edinburgh, will be 
very glad to receive the names and addresses of the men of 
American nationality in this hospital. 

When the United States came into the war the work of 
this Red Cross Committee was reinforced by a committee 
of Scotch people who established the " American Welcome 
Club " as a sign of their appreciation of America's en- 
trance into the world conflict. The Red Cross and the 
" Welcome Club " worked together in Edinburgh through- 
out the year and it was impossible for an American sol- 
dier or sailor to pass through the city without coming into 
contact with one or the other of these helpful agencies. 

In the Edinburgh district there were eleven important 
hospitals, most of them, however, located from two to 
twenty miles from the center of the city and, on this ac- 
count, the adequate " covering " and visiting of these insti- 
tutions involved a great amount of labor. Occasionally 



HERE AND THERE IN BRITAIN 285 

American patients were found in all of them, but, distance 
or no distance, the Red Cross women visited every patient 
regularly and provided him with every needful comfort. 
In the list of articles thus distributed there were many 
things of unusual character, for your American soldier and 
sailor have fanciful tastes. Thus, in the list for August, 
1918, was found the entry, " One mince pie." The story 
of this delectable thing was thus told by the Care Com- 
mittee visitor : 

" An American sailor who had been badly injured by an 
accident on shipboard, was hovering between life and death 
in one of our Edinburgh hospitals. Everything had been 
done by the surgeons, doctors, nurses and the Red Cross 
workers to minister to his comfort, yet there seemed some- 
thing lacking. 

" He was homesick. His mind was constantly back in 
his home town on the E"ew England coast, and nothing that 
the good people in this strange part of the world could do 
consoled him. It was home that he craved, and his yearn- 
ing thoughts groped for a symbol, a visible, tangible token 
of far-away Massachusetts. He wanted something that he 
could touch and say, ' This is a bit of HOME ! ' 

" One day, in the midst of his pain and soul-suffering, 
there flashed upon him the object of his maddening quest, 
and he murmured ecstatically, ' Oh, if I could only have a 
piece of mince pie ! ' 

" It wasn't that he wanted to eat a piece of pie, he was 
far too ill for that. His hunger was for what the pie rep- 
resented, and when you stop to think of it there is nothing 
more American than mince pie. So the Red Cross woman 
who was Jiere managed with some difficulty to procure all 
the ingredients of a real New England mince pie, she 
cooked it and brought it to him with a piece of cheese in 
which was planted a miniature Stars and Stripes. 

" He could not eat either pie or cheese, but they con- 
tributed just the home touch needed to improve his mental 
condition. When the wife of the American consul visited 



286 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

him a day or two later and remarked upon this improve- 
ment, he replied: 

" ' Two days ago I was in such misery that I could have 
welcomed death. ISTow I feel that America is not so far 
away as I thought and that I have got to hang on ! ' 

" This sailor recovered in due course and was sent to his 
home in America." 

In the Edinburgh hospitals the Americans were, in the 
main, seamen suffering from illness or accidents. When 
the American aerodromes were erected in Scotland a num- 
ber of cases came from these camps. 

Six Glasgow hospitals received occasional American 
cases and here too there was an efficient, well-organized 
Care Committee of American women who worked with the 
Red Cross officer in charge of the district. In Glasgow the 
Red Cross maintained a club for the United States forces 
where thousands of soldiers and sailors were entertained 
during the year. It is worthy of note that the Scotch land- 
lord who owned the premises refused to accept any rent 
and a large number of residents of the city volunteered to 
assist in the work of the club and insisted upon paying part 
of the expenses. 

This club was opened on April 15th and offered its guests 
the usual lounge rooms, reading and writing rooms, billiard 
room, canteen, and information bureau. A piano and 
other musical instruments were temptingly provided as was 
a large assortment of American magazines and newspapers 
not too old. There was a weekly concert and trips and out- 
ings were periodically arranged. For the athletically in- 
clined the club had a large stock of tennis and baseball 
equipment and there were several parks, squares and 
parades where these could be conveniently used. There is 
nothing which the American soldier and sailor, just set 
down from a trans-Atlantic voyage so much enjoys as a 
game of baseball, so the club regularly " promoted " 
matches between nines from the various arriving ships or 
those of the aero-squadrons in the neighboring camps. All 



HERE AND THERE IN BRITAIN 287 

the ball players made the Red Cross Club their head- 
quarters and there were many merry gatherings at the can- 
teen before and after -the games. 

In the basement of the club was a great Red Cross store- 
house and here supplies were kept on hand in sufficient 
quantities to provide for an arriving convoy of troops to the 
number of 10,000. Various medical and surgical goods 
were in stock for the needs of the aero camps and naval 
hospitals and the articles thus supplied began with operat- 
ing tables and ended with fresh eggs. The occasional ar- 
rival of convoys at Glasgow, owing to the presence of Ger- 
man submarines near Liverpool, brought sudden and heavy 
demands upon the Red Cross. These troops were generally 
entrained for the south immediately. They had a hot meal 
aboard ship just before debarkation and arrangements 
were made to supply them with hot coffee and sandwiches 
at Carlisle, the first railway stop on the journey to Win- 
chester. Because of these provisions there was no need 
for an elaborate Red Cross canteen menu at the Glasgow 
docks. Coffee, chocolate, cigarettes and sandwiches were 
generally supplied, but there were other and more pressing 
needs on the part of these men just from America. Ex- 
perience demonstrated that the great wish of almost every 
American soldier upon his arrival on dry land was to let 
his people at home know of his safe arrival and the next 
greatest wish to see a newspaper. So the Red Cross can- 
teen women were provided with large quantities of Red 
Cross post cards and a plentiful supply of British and 
American newspapers not to mention the Daily Bulletin 
published at London headquarters with its baseball scores 
and wireless news of the kind the soldiers wanted. Owing 
to the haste with which the men were entrained there was 
seldom time for them to write their post cards before de- 
parture, so the Red Cross had them collected and mailed at 
Carlisle. 

One of the most interesting American military works in 
the region of Glasgow, in fact, in all Great Britain, was 



288 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

that of a corps of engineers which was laying a pipe line 
to carry fuel oil from Glasgow to Inverness, on the north- 
east coast. This was a work of the highest military im- 
portance and, strangely enough, it was kept more or less 
a secret. The completion of this line meant not only a 
continuous flow of fuel for the oil-burning warships of the 
American and British navies, but a tremendous saving in 
tank tonnage and probably of ships themselves, as it ter- 
minated the necessity of sending oil carriers on the danger- 
ous trip around the north of Scotland. The men engaged 
in this work were not easily accessible, as they moved their 
camp forward as their work progressed, but it was part of 
the task of the Ked Cross men in Glasgow to follow the en- 
gineers and see that they wished for nothing in vain, and 
the Eed Cross men did it, often to the surprise of the pipe- 
layers who never tarried long in one place. 

All the Scottish aero camps were visited by the Red 
Cross at frequent intervals, supplementing their living ar- 
rangements, bathing facilities and hospital accommoda- 
tions as was necessary. The small camp infirmaries which 
the Red Cross installed filled a great need. These were 
not meant for serious cases, but in the wear and tear of 
aero-squadron life, cases of minor ailments and accidents 
constantly occurred and could be promptly and adequately 
dealt with while the graver cases could be accommodated 
awaiting their removal to hospital. 

There was a great demand for Red Cross supplies of vari- 
ous kinds in these camps, most of which were situated at a 
considerable distance from a town or village, where the 
damp, cold climate of Scotland was particularly penetrat- 
ing and warm, woolen clothing absolutely indispensable. 

The United States Navy Base Hospital at Seafield, 
Leith, was housed in what was at one time a poorhouse. 
Close to the sea, on spacious grounds, commanding a won- 
derful view of ocean and mountain, it was a fine building 
with glass-roofed corridor of unusual length. Within its 



HERE AND THERE IN BRITAIN 289 

walls accommodation could easily be found for 650 
patients, or even for 800 without discomfort. 

Scottish poorhouses, before the war, were centers of con- 
troversy in the stormy days of British politics, but they 
were, without exception, splendidly designed and con- 
structed buildings. After the outbreak of hostilities these 
poorhouses entered upon a new phase of life as hospitals 
and sanatoria, and it was one of the best of them that was 
turned over to the American Navy. 

Its equipment was one of the marvels of American 
energy. Los Angeles was its patron, supplying 250 tons 
of Red Cross stores, which were sent on to Philadelphia for 
shipment. At the League Island Navy Yard they were 
packed by hundreds of men working in four-hour shifts. 
One hundred freight cars were required to convey the 5,500 
packages from the port of debarkation in Great Britain to 
their destination, yet only thirty-six cans of corn and one 
box of surgical instruments of all that vast consignment 

went astray. 

On an afternoon in August the poorhouse was taken over 
as a hospital and the staff was ready forthwith to care for 
200 patients ! Patients were already in the institution the 
day the first Red Cross representative inspected it, and this 
was less than two weeks after the 250 tons of equipment had 
been dumped on the premises. He found an oculist's 
room, a dentist's room, an X-ray chamber installed, all the 
fittings, to the last least detail, having been brought from 
California ! 

A plan of extensive alteration was carried out and hut- 
ments, also brought from America, were erected on the 
grounds to accommodate the staff. The personnel num- 
bered 247, including twenty-two physicians, sixty-three 
female and eighty male nurses. Proper decoration of a 
hospital is regarded nowadays as an essential in the treat- 
ment of sick and wounded, and this was well followed out 
in the Seafield establishment. The buildings had not been 



290 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

painted for eleven years and the remains of the old crude 
colorings were covered over with soft French grays, devoid 
of polish, as most conducive, according to experience, to 
the welfare of the suffering. 

One of the first things done by the American Red Cross 
at Seafield was to begin the construction of a home for the 
nurses. This was half finished when the Armistice was 
signed. All the plans were ready, also, for the erection of 
a recreation hall capable of seating 700 persons. 

To the United States Naval Base Hospital at Strath- 
pefTer, the Eed Cross sent supplies and comforts for the 
sick and wounded who, at times, numbered 600. The re- 
moteness of the place did not prevent American women 
living in Scotland from paying regular visits to their 
countrymen. A Red Cross unit recruited in San Francisco 
staffed the hospital and that city furnished a major part 
of the equipment of the institution which was opened on 
March 1, 1918, simultaneously with the arrival of im- 
portant naval forces in the adjacent waters. The hospital 
was closed on January 15, 1919. 

StrathpefTer is in the heart of the Highlands and the 
hospital building was at one time a spa, one of the 
magnificent " hydropathics " which are to be found at vari- 
ous salubrious spots throughout Scotland. It had accom- 
modation at the beginning for 500 patients, but could 
readily have been expanded for the use of at least 1,000. 

THE WORK IN IRELAND 

As there were large American naval bases at Queenstown 
and Berehaven, a receiving and distributing station at 
Passage and naval aviation camps scattered throughout the 
Island, Red Cross work in Ireland was chiefly among 
American bluejackets and marines. Its central offices 
were at Queenstown and Dublin. 

At Queenstown, which was both a permanent station for 
about 8,000 men and the base for forty United States de- 
stroyers, a naval hospital, its unit recruited by the Red 



HERE AND THERE IN BRITAIN 291 

Cross in Providence, R. L, was built in response to a grow- 
ing demand for accommodations for the men being taken 
care of in the sick-bays of the Melville and the British hos- 
pital at Haulbowline. This hospital, for which the Red 
Cross provided everything that was needed, was opened on 
October 11, 1918, several weeks before scheduled time, in 
order to receive twelve men from the IT. S. Destroyer Shaw 
which had been cut in two off Ireland by the Aquitania, two 
officers and ten men losing their lives in the collision. It 
was fortunate that the hospital had been opened as it was 
then in complete readiness for the influenza emergency 
which swept through the forces so soon afterward, attack- 
ing particularly the destroyer crews. At that time the Red 
Cross furnished ambulances to convey the sick from the 
docks. The epidemic created a serious situation at Bere- 
haven, where the battleships were, and made necessary the 
transportation of a 25-bed tent hospital from London just 
as soon as it could be got there, this service being described 
in its picturesque details in the chapter narrating the ex- 
ploits of the doughty " Flying Squadron " attached to Lon- 
don headquarters. 

From time to time throughout the su mm er and autumn 
various freight transports called at Queenstown and nearly 
all of them took on board invalided men bound for Amer- 
ica. All of these vessels were visited by the Red Cross, 
their sick-bays inspected and provided with such things as 
were needed to make the return trip of the sick men more 
pleasant. 

Eight hospitals in Queenstown and its vicinage were the 
especial care of the Red Cross and its service was a great 
boon to the men. One Red Cross woman visited 1,625 
Americans in hospitals during the month of December 
alone and 3,115 in the year, distributing 9,000 comfort ar- 
ticles. In many cases gifts which were mere trifles in 
themselves, a comfort kit or a " housewife,' 7 seemed to pro- 
duce an almost incredible effect of relief to a serious case. 
A sailor, who had narrowly escaped death in an accidental 



292 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

explosion of depth charges on a destroyer, regained con- 
sciousness after many days and his awakening thoughts 
centered on the knowledge that he had lost all of his per- 
sonal effects. His first coherent request was for a tooth 
brush ! The Red Cross woman at his bedside handed him 
a complete comfort bag, containing many more things than 
just one tooth brush, and the physician admitted that this 
seemed to do him more good than all the medicines and 
surgery and care that they had given him. The shipmates 
of a badly injured man sent to the Red Cross office one day 
a package enclosing American pie tins, white flour, sugar 
and apples, and a note stating that their pal's favorite dish 
was apple pie. So the Red Cross worker baked a beauty 
and took it to the hospital with the story of thoughtfulness 
behind it and the injured man exclaimed, "Why, I'd rather 
have this pie than a twenty-dollar bill ! " 

The erection of naval air stations was begun on a large 
scale in the late summer and to care for cases of illness or 
injury in them and also among the American mechanics 
assigned to British Air Force training camps, the Red 
Cross established a small hospital in Dublin and a camp 
infirmary at Gormanstown. The Dublin hospital, to 
which, by the way, General Biddle paid three visits, was a 
residence overlooking a park and had fourteen rooms, two 
of them large enough to be transformed into ten-bed wards 
and a third which was converted into an officers' ward of 
six beds. Possession of this building was obtained early 
in October and the first patient to be received was a con- 
valescent soldier from the City of York which had put 
into Belfast with a number of sick aboard. She had had 
a very rough passage during which a large number died of 
pneumonia. Thirty-three of the most severe cases were 
taken off the ship and put in various hospitals in Belfast, 
but twelve of them died during the first two or three days 
and nine more during the next fortnight. The Red Cross 
did all it could for these men, supplying special foods, 
medicines and the various indispensables for pneumonia 



HERE AND THERE IN BRITAIN 293 

patients. Those who died were "buried with full military 
honors in the Belfast City Cemetery in a plot set aside for 
American soldiers. 

When, early in September, Americans were being 
brought to the camps in Ireland in parties of about 100, 
the Eed Cross set up a canteen at the docks at North Wall, 
Dublin, to serve them, as well as to serve departing troops. 

The American Army headquarters in Dublin being too 
small for the growing importance of the Irish area, the Eed 
Cross put several rooms in its headquarters at the disposal 
of the army, providing offices for the Chief Surgeon, offices 
and storeroom for the Quartermaster, and an office for the 
Provost Marshal. As it was often very difficult to obtain 
suitable billets in the city, sleeping quarters were allotted 
at Red Cross headquarters for the army's motor sergeant 
and his drivers. 

In the eastern part of Ireland the work of the Eed Cross 
was largely carried on by the Dublin and Belfast branches 
of the London Chapter. The Dublin Committee of Ameri- 
can Women opened club rooms for the American soldiers 
and sailors with a canteen service, reading and writing 
rooms and an information bureau. Also it carried out 
many kinds of helpful work, from hospital visiting to enter- 
tainment. The ladies in charge of the club room served tea 
every afternoon and supper every evening entirely at their 
own expense. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE BLUEJACKETS OF CARDIFF AND PLYMOUTH 

AT Cardiff, in Wales, the United States Navy estab- 
lished one of its most important bases in Great 
Britain, for it was to this port that seventeen of its giant 
colliers came for fine Welsh coal for the American fleet in 
British waters and here also came eighty-two other Gov- 
ernment vessels to load coal for Brest, Bordeaux, Nantes, 
and St. Nazaire for the nse of the American Army. Al- 
most every day there was a coal ship in or out of the port. 
Two thousand American sailors were based at Cardiff, the 
working crews, guns crews, and radio men of the colliers. 
It was an extensive field for the Red Cross not only by rea- 
son of the things which could normally be counted upon to 
happen, but for those likely to happen, because the German 
submarines were after those coal ships every run. 

So the Red Cross created a base of its own there and put 
in charge of it a cattle rancher from Wyoming. That may 
seem a strange thing to have done, but if personalities may, 
for a moment be permitted, the Red Cross never did a wiser 
thing than when it sent Ira Casteel to Cardiff. It is quite 
impossible to write of what was done in that busy Welsh 
port without writing first of all of Casteel, for it was he 
who " put over " the Red Cross there. It's slang, perhaps, 
but it's expressive and he " put it over " in a way that will 
endear the Red Cross to every naval man who came in 
contact with it, from Rear Admiral Philip Andrews, the 
base commander, down to the newest and youngest 
" rookie." Casteel went at the work in July, 1918, and at 
that time he had brown hair. This detail would mean 
nothing were it not for the fact that when he left Cardiff 

294 



BLUEJACKETS OF CARDIFF AND PLYMOUTH 295 

in June, 1919 his hair was white. Of course this might 
have happened if he had remained on the Wyoming ranch, 
but it didn't. When the " flu " descended upon the world 
in the autumn of 1918 and sick men were being set ashore 
at Cardiff from the colliers daily, when nurses were every- 
where engaged and none to be had, Casteel was nurse, 
orderly, messenger, everything in the little Red Cross hos- 
pital he set up. He nursed the men, he cooked their food 
and every night he washed their clothes, all alone, and this 
for nearly six weeks ! 

He had three critically ill men in his hospital, a naval 
lieutenant and two sailors. The place was so small and 
overcrowded that all three were put in one little room, but 
as the lieutenant seemed to have a chance to live, while the 
other two were all but passing out, the officer was placed 
in the center of the three with the only screen in the house 
around his bed. Also it kept the two dying men on the 
flanks of his bed from seeing each other and how ill each 
was. 

To understand this situation one must realize that the 
" flu " of that autumn swept across the world like a plague 
and a hospital with two patients in it on one day might have 
two hundred the next, or even 2,000, and pneumonia 
stalked the " flu " like a gray wolf. It was so sudden, so 
severe that once the navy had to send a vessel 300 miles to 
sea from Cardiff to bring in a cargo whose crew was too ill 
to work her to port. 

But, to go back, there was one nurse in the Eed Cross 
hospital the night the three men were brought in and 
Casteel set her to watch over one of the bluejackets who, in 
the delirium of his last hours, was trying his best to get 
out of bed to see his pal on the other side of the screen. 
In a little while this man collapsed and died, and both the 
other men knew it, sensed it, although he went out without 
a sound. For once, as Casteel passed the lieutenant's cot, 
the officer looked up and said, " I'll be the next, I guess." 

Casteel took away the screen, sat down by the man's bed 



296 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

and in a quarter of an hour had infused him with the de- 
termination to live. Casteel found out that the man had a 
wife and he played upon this string until the lieutenant 
would in Casteel' s own words, " have lived if he died for 
it." 

When this task was accomplished Casteel went away to 
call up the undertaker to remove the dead man, because he 
wasn't sure about keeping up the morale of the others with 
a sheeted body only a few feet away. After the under- 
taker had brought out the body, Casteel besought him to re- 
main, because he felt that, for all he could do, the other 
two men were as well as gone. " There will be two more 
to take out in a little while," he explained to the under- 
taker, " so please wait. I'd rather they were all taken out 
at the same time, so the other fellows in the hospital won't 
be made to feel unnecessarily depressed. I'd lose my grip 
on a lot of them if they saw a procession of bodies going 
out, you know." 

But there was never a thought of not trying to " beat " 
the undertaker, so he raced back to the little room where 
the two very sick men remained and sat by them in turn. 

" You're going to be all right now," he assured them. 
" You've gone past the worst part of it — here, have a 
drink of this. It's up to you now, old man, you're the boy 
who can do it. See, you're smiling, I knew you were all 
right." 

From bed to bed he went, holding the men by their life- 
less hands, imploring them to " buck up," telling them in 
the sea language they understood — and where a Wyoming 
ranchman ever picked it up is a mystery — that they'd 
" weathered hell, even if their lee leeches were smoking," 
and that every little thing was all right now. He fixed 
their pillows, fanned them, bullied them and then, when- 
ever he could do it, he dashed down again to the undertaker 
seated and fidgeting in the office below, pleading with him 
to wait just a few minutes more because the fellows up- 
stairs couldn't last much longer. And, in turn, darting 



BLUEJACKETS OF CARDIFF AND PLYMOUTH 297 

up to the little room with the beds in it, working, praying, 
threatening, fighting for the lives of the two. 

This went on from nine o'clock in the evening until after 
midnight, when the undertaker finally fidgeted out, saying 
he couldn't wait another instant, that he had to get back 
to his shop. 

As a matter of fact, he need never have waited one in- 
stant, because, by some miracle, Casteel pulled both of those 
men back to life and eventually sent them home to Amer- 
ica. Perhaps it's not so strange after all that his hair 
turned white. 

It was Casteel, too, who fought with owners, lawyers, 
authorities, every one in Cardiff who opposed him when he 
set about acquiring a large disused aeroplane factory as 
a dormitory and club house for the bluejackets who came to 
the base. He got it eventually, you may be sure, and fitted 
it up with bunks and a mess hall and a handy 24-foot ring 
in which the men could work off their ambitions and their 
surplus energy. When he thought it would be a good idea 
to have concerts or dramatic entertainments every week 
at the barracks, he went to the managers of the theaters in 
Cardiff and three days later one of the companies sent 
nearly a dozen of its members who had volunteered to cheer 
the " gobs " along, and every week thereafter a perform- 
ance was thus provided for the men. Casteel tried to buy 
emergency stores for the Red Cross from the navy and was 
told it couldn't be done, regulations forbade it. That was 
too bad, but he'd see what he could do about it; so he took 
the matter up with Admiral Sims — and after that he 
bought stores for the Red Cross from the navy. 

He was a man with a great heart, a great determination, 
this Casteel man from a Wyoming ranch. 

After a while he got all his mechanisms running 
smoothly, his hospital established in three adjoining houses, 
a detail of six Red Cross nurses, a big warehouse and a 
garage and then an average of forty bed patients were cared 
for and about 100 men a day attended at the Red Cross 



298 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

dispensary. It had not been easy going for a number of 
reasons, but there never was a man more wrapped up in 
the work than Casteel, and the sailors worshipped him. 

" I hate to give it up/' he said when he came back to 
London late in June last, " because I've never been so 
happy in my life over anything I've done. And I'd like to 
have kept at it a bit longer, just to see if my hair wouldn't 
go back to brown." 

JNaval service extended far outside the limits of the hos- 
pital and the dispensary. Money was forwarded to rela- 
tives in the States for more than 500 of the bluejackets and 
the tally of articles distributed included 3,000 sweaters, 
1,000 pairs of gloves, 2,000 wristlets, helmets and mufflers, 
10,000 packages of chocolate, and more than 150,000 
cigarettes. 

The Red Cross received immediate information as to the 
arrival or departure of every American ship and an automo- 
bile service was maintained for the purpose of putting 
needed supplies aboard a vessel at the earliest possible mo- 
ment. As soon as a ship arrived, the men aboard her were 
notified of the location of Red Cross headquarters and of 
the facilities at their disposal there, including billets, sup- 
plies, a laundry, reading and writing rooms, a dispensary, 
and, in short, an organization ready to give them what- 
ever they needed from head to foot. 

Emergency stations with Cardiff as a center, were estab- 
lished at Milford Haven, Swansea and Tenby, at each of 
which were stored such things as might be needed by the 
crews of shipwrecked or torpedoed vessels. The stations 
were of a character similar to that of the ones in Ireland 
which were of such great value at the time of the Otranto 
disaster. Other relief stations were placed at Abery- 
stwyth, Cardigan and Pembroke and there was a large 
American Red Cross child welfare center at Swansea. 

Shortly before the signing of the Armistice there were 
indications that a great naval engagement impended and 
the Cardiff office perfected arrangements to care for 3,000 



BLUEJACKETS OF CARDIFF AND PLYMOUTH 299 

men, the equipment gathered including beds, mattresses, 
linen and hospital supplies. 

For United States Naval Headquarters, the Bed Cross 
provided ninety mattresses, 200 blankets, two motor cars, a 
motorcycle and the usual complete array of surgical and 
hospital appliances. 

Several times the Cardiff station supplied clothes and 
other necessities to the crews of wrecked vessels, notably 
those of the IT. S. S. Lake Weston, driven ashore off Nash's 
Point in a December gale in Bristol Channel, twenty miles 
from the port while on her way from Trance with a cargo 
of mining timbers; the U. S. S. Lake "Erie, wrecked off 
Penarth in mid-January and sinking in twelve minutes, 
and the U. S. S. Lake Bohme and Lake Remington, both 
sunk in the treacherous waters of Bristol Channel. In all 
of these cases no lives were lost, but as soon as the wreck 
was reported the Red Cross filled a oar with personal and 
medical supplies and dashed off down the coast to the 
rescue. 

So active was the port of Cardiff that, while the Red 
Cross was on duty there, more than 100,000 American 
bluejackets and naval officers entered, passed through or 
were attached to the base. Of these the Red Cross at- 
tended more than eighty per cent. It cared for 374 pa- 
tients — 250 of them " flu " cases — in its own hospital, 
only nine of whom died, and for 267 in the navy's sick-bay 
at base headquarters. At the Red Cross dispensary 3,600 
sailors received treatment and up to April 1, 1919, a total 
of 48,000 men had been canteen guests of the Red Cross. 
The number of billets furnished, which means a lodging 
for the night, amounted to more than 43,000. In loans to 
enlisted men £1,256 were given out and by June, 1919, 
eighty-two per cent of this amount had been repaid. One 
hundred and seventy ships received Red Cross supplies and 
the number of complaints was zero. 

Considerable plans for hospitalization in Wales were 
under way at the time of the Armistice and then aban- 



300 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

doned. Preparations had been made to take over large 
properties at Newport and Abergavenny. 

During the latter part of 1918, a separate Red Cross 
area was organized with headquarters at Plymouth, cover- 
ing southwest England from Paignton to Penzance and em- 
bracing the English counties of Devon and Cornwall. It 
included the U. S. Base Hospital, at Paignton, formerly an 
American Red Cross Hospital, and the still newer U. S. 
Base Hospital at Eort Efford, at Plymouth, which was still 
in the constructional stage when the Armistice was de- 
clared. Plymouth was an important center from the point 
of view of emergency relief, because with stations here and 
at Falmouth, Ilfracombe and Penzance it was possible to 
rush supplies to any part of the coast in case of disaster, so 
much to be expected on that rugged shore-line. 

In addition to the two American hospitals in this district 
there was hospital service also for Americans in the British 
institutions at Exeter and Newton Abbot. 

The naval side of the work at Plymouth was important 
as more than 600 United States sailors and 1,200 
" chasers " were based on this port. Everything possible 
was done to make happy the lot of these men. Two recrea- 
tion rooms, one at Bed Cross headquarters in the town and 
one on the Quay, were established, and there the men came 
continually in personal touch with the cheerful women of 
the Care Committee. These recreation rooms had a 
marked influence upon the men and, through them, many 
of the sailors made wholesome friendships with the resi- 
dents of the old town. Of course, the canteen service was 
highly popular and it ministered to the men in more than 
12,000 instances, which means, naturally, that there were 
many " repeaters." With its supplies the Bed Cross was 
generous as usual, and more than 367,000 individual 
articles were given away to add to the comfort of the blue- 
jackets. As the " chasers " were small and not well 
equipped with bathing facilities, the Bed Cross bought hun- 



BLUEJACKETS OF CARDIFF AND PLYMOUTH 301 

dreds of tickets from a Plymouth bath corporation and 
issued them gratis at all times to any of the sailors who ap- 
plied. One of the forms of amusement the Red Cross or- 
ganized was " hikes " on bright days into the interesting 
countryside. Visits were made to historical places in the 
neighborhood of Plymouth and to noted estates and in many 
cases the owners of these estates met the " hiking " parties 
and hospitably showed them about. 

Particularly proud was the Ked Cross staff of its ability 
to meet and handle " rush jobs " and it had a number of 
them to test its mettle. The first came early in January, 
1919, when it was called upon to supply 20,000 dressings 
and miscellaneous equipment to the hospital ship Comfort. 
In the designated time, the dressings and 18,104 other 
articles were put aboard. At another time, in mid-Febru- 
ary, all the " chasers " and their personnel, numbering 
about 1,100 men, were ordered to other ports. In this in- 
stance 6,473 articles were supplied in addition to 101,046 
cigarettes. Once it was called upon to provide $1,000 
worth of dental supplies and in the early spring it prepared 
and served food to 547 sailors sent from Cardiff to man 
the Imperator, with only a few hours' notice and only 
forty-five minutes in which to do the actual service. 

Although the Ked Cross had much else to do, the main 
part of its activity was in preparation to serve the big base 
hospital at Ford Efford, which was to have been opened 
early in December, 1918, but, on account of the Armistice, 
it was never opened as an American institution but was 
turned over to the British in its nearly-completed state. 

There were 1,500 Americans in thirteen British hospi- 
tals in the district, mainly men wounded in France while 
brigaded with the British troops. Many of these men had 
been completely out of touch with their paymasters for a 
long time and were generally lonesome and forlorn, but the 
Red Cross hunted them out and helped them, whatever 
their wants. Toward the end of the year all of them were 



302 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

gathered together and sent home in the hospital ships, and 
what the Red Cross had done to aid them was expressed 
by one man as he was going aboard his vessel, " We feel 
that the Red Cross has done everything for ns." 



CHAPTER XVIII 

WITH THEi ARMY TOI ARCHAlTGEIi 

DURING war-time the garrulous old lady we call 
Rumor is busier than anyone else in the world. 
She goes up and down the land with whisperings and wise 
nods, doing good and evil impartially. All she desires is to 
be busy and to stir things up generally. In the course of 
her travels in July, 1918, she got into Red Cross Head- 
quarters in London one afternoon and confided, behind her 
hand, that the United States intended to send an Expedi- 
tionary Force to the ISTorth of Russia to cooperate with the 
British, French and Italians. She " knew " no more than 
that just then. It did not seem an unlikely military 
maneuver, considering the conditions in that part of 
Europe, and after she left, the Red Cross set about verify- 
ing the information. Telegrams were dispatched to Paris 
and Washington in search of confirmation but none was 
forthcoming. 

In a little while, however, back came the persistent Old 
Lady, this time with the announcement that Murmansk had 
at first been decided upon as the destination of the 
expedition, but that later counsel had urged Archangel 
as the better strategic objective and that the troops were 
certainly to be ordered there. Again the Red Cross 
flashed out inquiries and this time, after a long delay — 
definite information was obtained. An Expeditionary 
Force was to be sent to Russia, it was to be outfitted in 
Great Britain and sail from there for Archangel as soon as 
fully equipped. 

It was self-evident that such an undertaking would com- 
pel a heavy draught upon the energies and resources of 

303 



304 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

the Red Cross and plans to meet it were at once set afoot 
by urgent requisition for supplies from headquarters in 
America, The task before the Eed Cross, great enough 
in the beginning, was soon much increased in one respect, 
for the military authorities, with the same order which re- 
duced the number of troops contemplated in the original 
plan of expedition, moved forward the date of departure. 
This materially shortened the time in which so much had 
to be accomplished. But it also served to put the organi- 
zation on its mettle. 

About two weeks before the appointed sailing day, the 
plans of the army had been worked out to a point which 
made it possible to send a committee of Red Cross officers 
to Aldershot, where the American troops destined for 
service in North Russia were encamped, to determine, 
with the aid of military officials, what the Red Cross could 
most usefully provide for this far-voyaging command. 
The ambulance train and medical detachment assigned 
to the unit were from a base hospital which had been 
originally organized and outfitted at Detroit, largely 
through the local chapter of the Red Cross. But inspec- 
tion at Aldershot disclosed the unfortunate fact that prac- 
tically all of the principal equipment and baggage of the 
medical detachment had, through error, been forwarded 
to France. Thus it was in great need of supplies of all 
kinds, not the least of which was thick, suitable clothing. 
Also there was little left of the welfare and recreational 
material which the Detroit Chapter had so thoughtfully 
included among its stores. 

The general equipment for the expedition was being 
furnished by the British Quartermaster's Department, the 
uniforms being of a standardized pattern designed by Sir 
Ernest Shackleton, the Arctic explorer and especially cal- 
culated to protect the men against the rigors of Russian 
winter. A large part of the deficiencies in ambulance 
and hospital equipment was also supplied by the British 
and a list of these and other articles to be similarly pro- 



WITH THE ARMY TO ARCHANGEL 305 

vided was carefully reviewed and checked by the Red Cross 
representatives and the medical officers of the expedition. 
After consultation it was decided that, as the bulk of 
what may be called routine supplies was satisfactory or 
had been arranged for, the Red Cross should generally 
confine itself to furnishing articles of a supplemental char- 
acter. This included comforts and delicacies for the sick 
and recreational material. So many things can be legiti- 
mately included in the latter category that it will cause 
the reader little wonder to learn that ten pages of closely- 
typewritten foolscap were necessary for the listing of the 
articles which the Red Cross provided for this first Arch- 
angel expedition. The list, as finally prepared, included 
not only the familiar things, such as sweaters, mufflers, 
wristlets, mittens, helmets, soap, tooth and hair brushes, 
razors, "housewives," chocolate, nuts, raisins, dates and 
figs, but — 

Jewsharps Ukeleles 

Carpentry tools. Canned heat 

Foot-lights Playing cards 

Hookey sticks Footballs 

Moving-picture machines Guitars 

Cigarette lighters Boxing gloves 

Wigs Theatrical make-up boxes 

Curling stones Skates 

Mandolins Accordeons 

Cameras Indoor-baseball outfits 

Snowshoes Talking machines 

Checkers Dominoes 

An English army officer, who saw the enumeration of 
these supplies said, " Well, that's the most extraordinary 
list I've ever laid eyes on ! " Perhaps this comment will 
also suffice for the reader. 

But the formulation of this list was only the beginning. 
It was unfortunate, but eminently reasonable, that the 
army could not give the Red Cross, or any one, for that 
matter, detailed information about the delivery or wharf 



306 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

destination of these stores. On August 15th, it announced 
that the supplies must be ready for delivery not later than 
the morning of the 19th. This was an incredibly short 
allowance of four days into which to crowd so much work. 
Available supplies in the Red Cross warehouses were in- 
adequate in view of so strange and varied a schedule of re- 
quirements and the stores for which appeal had been made 
to Washington had not then arrived in volume. So the 
Eed Cross had to ask for permission to purchase freely in 
the English markets. This was instantly forthcoming and 
most of the articles were secured in the desired quantities, 
some, however, with considerable difficulty. One example 
will serve to illustrate the obstacles the organization had 
to surmount. Twelve large cooking stoves were among 
the things called for. There were no stoves of the type 
desired by the military authorities to be found in London 
so it was necessary to purchase them in Scotland. To ob- 
tain delivery at the London docks in time for loading, 
considering the congested condition of freight transporta- 
tion throughout Great Britain, was impossible by ordinary 
means. But after considerable effort, the Red Cross re- 
ceived permission to attach a freight car to the end of a 
through passenger train from Scotland, and the stoves ac- 
cordingly arrived in London well within the time limit, 
and were eventually loaded aboard the troopship. 

From August 15th to 17th practically all the energies 
of the American Red Cross headquarters staff in London 
were centered upon the purchase, collection and packing 
of the supplies for the expedition. In this task the 
British Red Cross cooperated most energetically and was 
responsible for the f orwarding of a large quantity of stores. 
Two of the American Red Cross warehouses in London 
packed 7,000 comfort kits in less than three days. And 
by midnight on the 18th, everything destined for North 
Russia was crated, labeled and awaiting the receipt of trans- 
portation instructions. 

These came only on the morning of the 19th and were 



WITH THE ARMY TO ARCHANGEL 307 

briefly to the effect that a transport would be at the Royal 
Albert docks in the East-End of London to take on sup- 
plies during the next twenty-four hours. The British Bed 
Cross sent word immediately that it would deliver all cases 
of supplies which it was providing, and the American Red 
Cross supply department augmented its own transport 
equipment by arranging to hire a large number of addi- 
tional trucks locally for the transport of the supplies to the 
port. At the last moment, however, a strike of 'bus and 
underground railway drivers in London threatened to dis- 
arrange all the carefully made plans. It was learned that 
the British Government had commandeered all the avail- 
able motor transport in the London area to carry munition 
workers to and from their factories, and on that account 
it was absolutely impossible for the Red Cross to obtain 
any outside transportation. American Army headquarters 
was asked to come to the rescue, and it ordered five large 
army lorries from Winchester to be immediately dis- 
patched to assist the Red Cross in London. They came as 
fast as their engines permitted and it was only with this 
assistance that the American Red Cross was able to move 
so large a mass of freight from its warehouses to the dis- 
tant wharves. 

But, as if there were not enough already, other difficul- 
ties developed. American Army headquarters had de- 
tailed a large number of soldiers to assist in the work 
of loading the two ships, but, owing to the strike, ar- 
rangements which had been made to care for this baggage 
detail at the piers twenty miles down the river had col- 
lapsed and there were no facilities in sight whereby these 
men could be fed and housed. In point of numbers, the 
task would not ordinarily have presented much difficulty 
but at this particular time it constituted a considerable 
obstacle. Nevertheless, true to Red Cross traditions, the 
Commission advised the American Army authorities that 
the Red Cross would undertake to feed and house seventy 
men at the Royal Albert Docks and 250 men at Tilbury 



308 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

Docks where another transport of the Russian convoy was 
being loaded with army supplies. 

The only available Red Cross canteen equipment in 
England was then being utilized at Liverpool for a large 
force of incoming troops. The Liverpool office of the 
Am erican Red Cross was instructed by telephone to load 
this entire equipment on the midnight train from Liver- 
pool after having completed its work for the incoming 
soldiers. In this way it reached London early on the 
following morning, was immediately dispatched to the 
London docks, and went into action by breakfast time. 
At Tilbury Docks, St. John's, the local church, lent its 
Thames Church Mission to the Red Cross for use as can- 
teen buildings in the emergency, and thus the Commission 
for Great Britain was able promptly to provide food and 
billets for the troops engaged in loading the equipment and 
baggage at this point. 

Now enters the " Flying Squadron " ! For it was at the 
Royal Albert Docks that the precious band took charge 
of the housing and food arrangements and, rather more 
than incidentally, of getting Red Cross supplies aboard the 
troopship. And at this, so to speak, supplemental task it 
once more signally distinguished itself. Ask the army 
if it didn't ! 

In the first place, the brief notice the Squadron re- 
ceived of the work it had to do in caring for the loading 
detachment of soldiers and dock workers, required three 
flying trips from London to transport the necessary food, 
blankets and paraphernalia. On a pier not far from the 
berth of the transport, a building erected by the Blue 
Funnel Line as a shelter for the 'longshoremen which had 
already been placed at the service of the Red Cross solved 
the problem of housing. As it left no room for the prep- 
aration of meals, one of the Squadron went aboard a vessel 
in a neighboring dry-dock, spent a quarter of an hour 
" jollying " the cook and came back with the joyful news 
that the ship's galley had been lent to the Red Cross for 



WITH THE ARMY TO ARCHANGEL 309 

as long a time as it cared to make use of it. That ques- 
tion settled, two of the corps volunteered as cooks, rolled 
up their sleeves and set to work. 

Although the size of the Expeditionary Force had been 
reduced to, approximately 5,000, the volume of material 
the Red Cross had supplied was very large. In addition 
to all this, there was British Red Cross stuff and the 
American Army was putting aboard the transport its own 
stores of many kinds and in great quantity. These latter 
were, not unnaturally, considered vital; they must be 
stowed, too, as quickly as possible. At the same time, and 
also not unnaturally, the " Flying Squadron " took a deep 
and jealous interest in the Red Cross material which 
mounted higher with every arriving truck. This must be 
got aboard at the same time. 

It is, the writer understands, a business maxim that 
results alone count, details being merely unimportant 
means to an end. The Squadron was evidently of this 
belief, because it religiously guarded all the details of its 
work at the Royal Albert Docks, but so far as results go, 
the Red Cross stores suddenly began to disappear into the 
hold of the transport. Up went a case of army goods, up 
went a Red Cross crate. Hour after hour it continued, 
the Squadron men selecting the boxes in accordance with a 
list they had carefully prepared. And every little while, 
just as a workman was about to lug away a package, a Red 
Cross man would appear beside him with a tin cup of hot 
coffee, a brace of doughnuts and adroit counsel : " Wait 
a minute; try some of this and then perhaps you'll be 
strong enough to lift two packages ! " Never did the " Fly- 
ing Squadron " men relax in their determination to make 
friends wherever they went. They helped the workers lift, 
load and trundle the crates aboard ship, they were first up 
and last to turn in. " Don't you ever get tired ? " an 
American sergeant asked one of them. " Don't have 
time ! " was the succinct reply. Indeed, the fatigueless 
energy, efficiency and general good humor of the Squadron 



310 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

so completely won over the British port authorities that 
the Squadron leader was permitted to have a key to the 
wharf gates and all the rights and privileges appertain- 
ing thereto. That key proved to be worth much more 
than its weight in, well, in platinum. It was so valuable 
that no one outside of the favored circle even knew of its 
existence. 

In their own inexorable season, the twenty-four ap- 
pointed hours for loading supplies on the troopship came 
to an end — but the work did not. It went on and on, with 
the stores still arriving. On the morning of August 21st, 
the British port officials notified the British Red Cross 
that no more shipments could be received at the pier after 
noon of that day. Accordingly, at that hour, the flow of 
goods from the British organization ceased. But through 
error of some sort the American Bed Cross was not simi- 
larly notified, and, in the absence of any official order, 
it continued to rush supplies to the docks. Such instruc- 
tions as were given to the men in charge of the trucks 
came from the " Flying Squadron " in, or about in, these 
terms : " Keep on coming and coming fast until we 
throw up our hands. Then if there's anything left you 
can lug it back to the Bed Cross warehouse." 

When the ship steamed away from her moorings not one 
ounce of American Bed Cross supplies failed to get aboard. 
Ajid this was due entirely to the unconquerable " Fly- 
ing Squadron." Although every department in the Red 
Cross had done its admirable share in providing, packing 
and delivering the stores, it was the Squadron that got 
them on the ship. It meant four long days and late nights 
of labor, and if the reader wonders what the Squadron did 
for sleeping quarters during that period, he may be told, 
with pride in the telling, that its members slept in ham- 
mocks swung in their covered motor trucks! 

After loading, the transports at Royal Albert and Til- 
bury Docks proceeded to RTewcastle-on-Tyne, where, on 
Sunday afternoon, August 29th, the American troops em- 




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WITH THE ARMY TO ARCHANGEL 311 

barked to begin the voyage to Eussia. Those in this first 
expedition were the 339th Infantry, Colonel George E. 
Stewart commanding; 1st Battalion 310th Engineers, 
Lieutenant Colonel P. S. Morris; 337th Eield Hospital, 
Major J. H. Longley, and the Medical Department of the 
339th Infantry, Captain J. C. Hall. As the Red Cross 
had permission to send a representative with the Expedi- 
tionary Force, Captain W. H. Winn was chosen in this 
capacity by the Commission for Great Britain and went 
aboard the transport Somali, which carried Colonel Stewart 
and his staff. The narrative of events which followed, 
both during the voyage and in Russia, is taken gratefully 
and liberally from Captain Winn's diary. 

When the ship arrived off Kola Inlet the transport Tsar, 
with 1,500 Italian troops aboard, silently withdrew from 
the convoy and went into Murmansk, as nine of her detach- 
ment had died of the " flu " and a large number were on 
the sick-list. Erom the White Sea it required forty-eight 
hours to reach the mouth of the Dvina River, near 
Economy, which is the winter port of Archangel, and 
about two hours from the city proper. 

As the convoy passed Economy and entered the river, 
with its winding channel and innumerable sand-bars, the 
troops caught their first glimpse of typical North Russian 
country in September. The land lay flat and marshy 
around them, covered for the most part with a scrubby 
tamarack growth. Fringing the river on both sides were 
endless lines of saw-mills, their operatives mainly women 
who gathered in groups on the banks to stare, displaying 
no great enthusiasm for the cheerful greetings flung to 
them by the soldiers. Finally the regimental band on the 
Somali struck up an irresistible air and this brought an oc- 
casional wave of hand or handkerchief from the curious 
crowds ashore. 

Rounding a point in the river and swinging into the 
wide harbor at last gave the men a view of Archangel, 
the metropolis of the Russian ISTorthland, with its flashing 



312 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

white spires and domes, its towering cathedral and large 
public buildings. There was something unreal about the 
city, particularly to those in the expedition who had 
thought to find the rough log-huts of a Klondike camp. 
Aside from its high, substantial structures, it seemed to 
be of great size, to stretch for an amazing distance along 
the waterside. As a matter of fact, Archangel has only 
length; its width is just enough to provide one main 
thoroughfare. It is a populated shelf on the brink of a 
river. Behind it, only a few hundred feet away, lies a 
morass, an interminable, sinister swamp. 

When the Somali went in she was met by two high- 
circling aeroplanes while the Allied craft, moored off the 
principal quay, fired a salute in honor of Colonel Stewart. 
She continued to a point opposite the center of the city, 
followed by the convoy, and dropped anchor there about 
noon on September 3rd. Then followed the usual official 
formalities after which the Somali was towed up the river 
to a wharf at Bakaritza, directly in front of the Archangel 
Monastery Church, the gaudiest piece of architecture in all 
Northern Bussia, where the debarkation of the troops oc- 
curred two days later. 

Much apprehension had prevailed during the last two 
days of the voyage, owing to the spread of influenza 
among the troops. The Somali's hospital was crowded to 
overflowing and additional sick beds had to be improvised 
aboard. Many of the officers were ill with it and one en- 
listed man died on the day of arrival. Conditions on the 
other ships, which were towed later to Bakaritza to land 
their men, were found to be practically identical. This 
made it necessary that the Bed Cross supplies for the 
sick should be available without delay, and for three days 
Captain Winn devoted himself exclusively to getting them 
ashore. The total shipment of 110 tons was, in that time, 
carried to land and placed in a shed under heavy guard. 

In the meantime, despite all that could be done, the 
" flu " had spread rapidly among the soldiers and was 



WITH THE ARMY TO ARCHANGEL 313 

beginning to develop into a particularly virulent form of 
pneumonia from which recovery was a long and difficult 
process. Major Langley, who was detailed as Chief Sur- 
geon, was stricken with it as were several other officers 
of his corps. When two battalions of the troops were sent 
to the front, taking their quota of medical officers, it created 
a lamentable shortage of doctors for Bakaritza and Arch- 
angel. 

" As there was only one hospital prepared for us when 
we arrived," Captain Winn wrote, " and as that proved 
inadequate to meet our emergency, temporary hospital ac- 
commodation had to be improvised at Bakaritza to com- 
bat the rapid spread of the disease among our troops. 
When the " flu " began to go into pneumonia and we were 
losing men every day, it was discovered that the sick be- 
ing sent to the hospital at Bakaritza were there compelled 
to lie on a kind of board shelving, instead of being fur- 
nished with beds. The building had been taken over only 
a few days before for hospital purposes, its original use 
being that of barracks for Russian soldiers. 

" With this discovery, I hurried to G. H. Q. at Arch- 
angel and reported it to the British Assistant Director 
of Medical Services — all phases of army control were 
under the British — stating that I knew he would agree 
with me in the necessity for remedying such a situation, 
adding that if he could provide the beds, I had the motor 
transport waiting at the door to go get them, and that I 
would arrange for their immediate shipment to Bakaritza. 
He at once telephoned to a British hospital and ordered 
twenty-five beds turned over to me. By good luck I was 
able to get a tug boat from the Russian River Transport 
Department and had them shipped to Bakaritza that after- 
noon. Later the board shelving was torn out and a suffi- 
cient number of canvas cots constructed to answer all 
needs. 

" Four days after our arrival some one left a note for 
me at Headquarters saying that there was a building in 



314 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

the Troitski Prospekt, the principal street of Archangel, 
which had been used as a Russian Red Cross Hospital and 
that the Sister in charge wished to see me in reference to 
turning it over to the American Red Cross in the present 
emergency. Calling there that afternoon with an inter- 
preter, I found a very clean and attractive institution 
of the bungalow type, presided over by a Sister Superior 
of the Russian Red Cross and six or seven nurses or 
novitiates of that organization. 

" The Sister Superior, or head nurse, as we afterward 
called her, said that she had come from Moscow before 
the Revolution and established the hospital for the benefit 
of Russian soldiers of the old regime ; that the Bolsheviki, 
when they had possessed themselves of Archangel early 
in the spring, had looted the institution of nearly all the 
furniture of value, taken away almost all of the surgical 
instruments and appliances, even the kitchen parapher- 
nalia, and ordered that no more soldiers, save Bolsheviki, 
should be received and that disobedience would mean 
annihilation. She added that since that time her faith- 
ful band had led to a hand-to-mouth existence, living upon 
what could be raised in a wretched little garden and 
what else their friends could spare. To the American 
Red Cross she offered the entire institution, without com- 
pensation of any kind, provided only that she and her 
nurses be permitted to remain and help in the hospital 
work. She was so cheerful, notwithstanding her pathetic 
difficulties, that the offer was immediately accepted, Col- 
onel Stewart approving, on the basis of protection for these 
kind and courageous women and a means of attending the 
pressing needs of our troops. So I arranged for the for- 
mal opening of the hospital under the auspices of the 
American Red Cross on the following morning. 

" The regimental band and a squad of men were de- 
tailed to parade at the hospital for the flag-raising cere- 
mony and it was not lacking in a certain impressiveness. 
The Colonel, unfortunately, could not be present, but he 



WITH THE ARMY TO ARCHANGEL 315 

sent Major Ely to represent him, and this officer and Cap- 
tain Hall, acting Chief Surgeon during Major Longley's 
illness; Captain Griger, ranking Dental Surgeon; Lieu- 
tenant Allen, Dentist ; the Head Nurse and her half-dozen 
Russian novitiates and the detail of men all stood at at- 
tention while the band played " The Star Spangled 
Banner" as I raised the American and Red Cross flags 
over the institution, taking it over formally in the name 
of the American Red Cross. The street beyond the hos- 
pital yard was crowded with curious Russians, and some 
of our men who could speak their language, told them 
what it was all about. A guard was placed before the 
building, and Captain Hall, taking charge at once, began 
putting the house in order. Captain Griger moved his 
dental outfit into one of the front rooms and by noon the 
little hospital had started on what proved to be a very 
useful career. 

" Captain Hall was delighted with the opportunity to de- 
velop an institution in that region along American lines. 
The cooking in the British hospital to which most of our 
men had been sent from the Clearing Stations was not 
to American taste. Every one of our sick men tried to 
get into the hospital so it was expanded, by a well-studied 
rearrangement, to a capacity of forty beds. 

" It was at first designed to be maintained primarily 
for officers, but conditions made this at once impracticable. 
On the second day a man was brought in with pneumonia 
from Olga Barracks at the other end of the street where 
the Headquarters Company lived, who was so ill that Cap- 
tain Hall did not think he could have survived if it had 
been necessary to take him to the British hospital three 
miles away over incredibly rough roads. The next day an- 
other man was brought in in the same condition, and for 
two days these men hung between life and death. The 
name of the first man was Cooper. I do not recall that 
of the second, but I had the extreme satisfaction of coming 
out of Russia with both of these men who were being in- 



316 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

valided to their homes in Michigan. By reason of the 
smallness of the hospital it was possible to give the patients 
better personal attention and food than in the larger in- 
stitutions, and our place was referred to among the sol- 
diers as " the best one in North Russia to get sick in ! " 

" As the influneza epidemic continued, men who were 
only slightly affected and others with whom the disease had 
run its course, were turned out of the hospitals. Some re- 
turned to their regular units but many, particularly those 
in the hospitals at Bakaritza, were temporarily sent to the 
Supply Company's barracks, where there was extra room. 
But there was no way to provide a special staff in these 
quarters, which was a necessity for men in such condition. 
In their behalf, therefore, a search of the city was made 
for a suitable building in which to establish a convalescent 
hospital. Many public or semi-public buildings were con- 
sidered but for good reasons were rejected one after an- 
other. However, temporary quarters for our convalescents 
were made by shifting some of the Russians and Czecho- 
slovaks from buildings they occupied. Meantime, a suit- 
able location was decided upon, but the transfer of Russian 
soldiers occupying it to other places and the cleaning and 
repair of the structure required a great deal of effort and 
patience. When the time came for the renovation of this 
building, Major Longley had recovered from his illness 
sufficiently to supervise this part of the work. 

" To understand the difficulties encountered in trying to 
developed anything in Archangel, it must be borne in mind 
that the Bolsheviki, when they took control of the city pre- 
vious to the Allied occupation, either destroyed or carried 
away from the shops and houses everything they thought 
could be of value to them. Many of the stores had only 
the semblance of a stock of wares. Articles of furniture, 
hardware, or tableware were almost unobtainable at any 
price. In consequence, to secure for our hospitals the very 
simplest requirements meant a tremendous amount of time 
and effort. A great deal of ingenuity was necessary to 



WITH THE ARMY TO ARCHANGEL 317 

make the few things obtainable serve other uses than those 
for which they were designed. Kitchen utensils, for ex- 
ample, were not to be found. Fortunately we were aided 
by discovering a Russian with a genius for making pots 
and pans out of sheet iron and he solved the hardest prob- 
lems incidental to equipping the convalescent hospital 
kitchen so that it could provide good American food in 
sufficient quantity. 

" We had landed about 5,000 strong in a place already 
filled to overflowing, where there was only the most meagre 
supply of things necessary for the needs of the civilian 
population alone. To care for and properly house our sick 
demanded every possible effort of the Medical Corps, much 
work on the part of the Engineers and all my time in be- 
half of the Red Cross for every hour of the first three 
weeks. It was not until then that the ravages of the dis- 
ease were checked. The total loss of life suffered by our 
Force amounted to sixty-five men, including one officer. 
This period of almost daily funerals had a most depressing 
effect upon the troops stationed in Archangel. 

" Major Longley having now recovered and the forma- 
tive days of the Medical Department being past, it now be- 
came necessary to find a permanent and convenient place 
for the Red Cross supplies on hand and those expected soon 
to arrive in the next convoy. The fine shop of the 
Archangel branch of a Riga rubber concern in the Troitski 
Prospekt was finally selected. As the manager had sold 
out practically all his goods and could get no more shipped 
to him, he was glad to turn his place over to the American 
Red Cross. On account of the large amount of canned 
fruit in the first Red Cross consignment and the prospect of 
much more in the next one, it was imperative that the 
building be heated during the severe winter weather. The 
Troitski offices comprised six rooms fitted with eight Rus^- 
sian ovens or stoves and was, furthermore, in the center of 
the business portion of Archangel. Therefore it was un- 
doubtedly the best place for the purpose in the city. 



318 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

" Moving the supplies from the improvised warehouse 
in Bakaritza to the store rooms in Archangel involved 
nearly every difficulty to be met in a region in which labor 
details, lorries and river transportation were extremely 
hard to obtain. It required labor details and lorries at 
both ends and a tug boat or barge for river transport in the 
middle. The synchronization of all these into one continu- 
ous movement involved much that was annoying at the time 
and highly amusing after it was accomplished. A detail 
consisting of a sergeant and four men was provided by 
Major Longley to help with the stores. In the Ambulance 
Company of the Expedition were four men, who, before 
entering the army, had been professional entertainers and 
had afforded much diversion for the troops both during the 
voyage and later in quarters. These men also were as- 
signed to my detail for the double purpose of assisting 
with the supplies and of working up entertainment features 
for the dreary winter months. It was planned to take 
them out with stores for the various detachments and let 
them give a concert at the same time. They called them- 
selves ' The Jazz Quartette ? and were very enthusiastically 
received wherever they went. 

" There were two principal fighting fronts in the 
Archangel district, one down the railroad about eighty 
miles to the southward, and the other, and more important, 
Dvina Front, 180 miles away in the same direction. In 
each of these sectors we had about 1,500 officers and men. 
Those on the river front were expected to be snowed in and 
the line of communication for supplies cut off when the 
river froze, except for the comparatively small amount that 
could be sent in when sledge lines were established. As 
the Dvina usually closed tight between the 12t?h and 21st 
of October, extreme effort was being made by the army to 
provide this detachment swiftly with everything needed 
for the winter." 

After a meeting of the Allied military authorities, 
Colonel Banting, Quartermaster of the Expedition, notified 



WITH THE ARMY TO ARCHANGEL 319 

Captain Winn that all arrangements had been made for the 
land and water transportation of America Red Cross sup- 
plies for these troops on the Dvina Front on October 1st. 
However, on the very day that this notice was given, the 
steamship Ascutney arrived unexpectedly at Archangel 
with an American Red Cross Commission aboard. It 
came empowered to take over all military and civilian re- 
lief in Western Russia, which included that already afoot 
in and about Archangel. Therefore, into its hands Cap- 
tain Winn promptly delivered all Red Cross stores, all 
data concerning work accomplished or contemplated, to- 
gether with the mass of valuable information his experi- 
ence had given to him, and on October 28th he set sail for 
England to rejoin the Commission there. In concluding 
his diary Captain Winn wrote: 

" The steamer on which I sailed from Archangel carried 
seventy-one enlisted men who were being invalided home. 
We went to Murmansk and remained more than two weeks 
aboard the ship. About forty-five of the men were trans- 
ferred to the U. S. S. Olympic and taken to England. 
We, too, were transferred to another vessel and after wait- 
ing nine more days finally got away. When we reached 
England, after a stormy voyage, we had been five weeks 
coming from Archangel." 

As Captain Winn had been the representative in North- 
ern Russia of the Red Cross Commission for Great Britain 
— which was the pioneer relief agent in that distant re- 
gion — his return to England terminated its connection 
with the work of caring for the American soldiers in the 
Archangel war zone. What was afterward done there is, 
obviously, not a part of this narrative. 

A second expedition to Archangel was organized in 
September, 1918, and when the time came to load the sup- 
plies the army conceded the prowess of the " Elying Squad- 
ron " on the first memorable occasion. It asked that the 
Red Cross men make sure that all American Army stores 
were loaded along with the Red Cross supplies. The fact 



320 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

that the former were scattered over six or eight different 
points along the water front made the task of the Squadron 
infinitely more difficult hut it collected them all and put 
them aboard the transport. So far as the Red Cross goods 
were concerned, the work in this instance was far easier, 
owing to a greater time allowance for preparation and 
stowage. But their volume was much increased, one entire 
shed at the Royal Albert Docks being filled from floor to 
ceiling with this shipment. 

On the eve of the departure of the second expedition, 
one of the medical officers who had been working in close 
cooperation with the Commission suggested that the Red 
Cross should prepare some sort of propaganda pamphlet or 
leaflet for circulation in JSTorth Russia. He had informa- 
tion that the Russians at Archangel were very friendly 
toward the Americans, but that there existed considerable 
regrettable ignorance among the peasant classes as to ex- 
actly what the Americans were doing in the war. It was 
a matter of common knowledge that Germany had con- 
ducted an elaborate and vigorous propaganda campaign 
throughout Russia to the detriment of the United States 
and the other Allies. It was evident that an excellent 
opportunity for the distribution of an American propa- 
ganda pamphlet would be presented as soon as the Red 
Cross representatives accompanying the expedition should 
reach Archangel. 

Although the time was perilously short, the Red Cross 
engaged the services of a competent Russian translator and 
gathered a large amount of material from the speeches and 
messages of President Wilson and from other available and 
pertinent documents, showing, first, what the war situation 
was at that time ; second, what the United States had done 
and intended to do, and third, a fraternal message to the 
Russian people. All this was carefully prepared and 
20,000 copies of the leaflet were printed in the Russian 
language before the expedition sailed. The elapsed time 



WITH THE ARMY TO ARCHANGEL 321 

from the first suggestion of this work to the time of the 
expedition's departure was less than fifty-six hours ! 

Later in the year, three large shipments of supplies were 
made to Copenhagen, consisting mainly of foodstuffs for 
Russian prisoners in Germany. The first shipment left 
London on October 23rd, the second on November 18th and 
the third at the very beginning of January. An idea of 
what these cargoes contained may be obtained from the list 
of articles sent on November 18th which included, among 
other things, 8,000 cases of pork and beans, 2,000 cases of 
biscuits, 1,500 cases of bread, 1,200 cases of roast beef, 800 
cases of oatmeal, 667 cases of corned beef, 800 cases of 
flaked fish and 800 cases of corned beef hash. 

The first of these shipments comprised 1,543 cases 
weighing 115,454 pounds, the second totaled 8,563 cases 
and the third weighed more than 2,000 tons, occupied the 
hold of an entire ship and was valued at $750,000. 

During the latter part of 1918 two consignments of sup- 
plies were sent to Gibraltar for the use of the American 
sailors at the naval base there, one arriving at Thanksgiv- 
ing time and the other just before Christmas. 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE UITBEEAKABLE LINK WITH " HOME " 

ONE of the clauses of the charter of the American Red 
Cross designates it as " a medium of communication 
between the people of the United States and their Army 
and Navy," and it is doubtful whether sixteen words were 
ever before employed to describe an obligation so varied, so 
far-reaching, so important. It does not minimize the rec- 
ord of any department in the organization to say that 
largely through the fulfillment of this obligation did the 
people at home in America realize that the Red Cross was 
always at hand to take care of their boys, wherever they 
might be and whatever their needs. 

It was a personal task as distinguished from the many 
valuable impersonal services the Red Cross rendered, and 
one whose value was beyond reckoning. It must, of its 
nature, deal individually and personally with the soldier 
or sailor and his family and concern itself more or less 
intimately with his affairs. Your soldier and sailor are — 
they will admit it themselves — "not much on letter writ- 
ing " and inclined to let cruelly long intervals elapse be- 
tween the letters which were so fervently promised " once 
a week at least." It was not a conscious neglect nor was it 
general but it was none the less hard upon the anxious 
ones at home who had to bear it. The contributory 
agencies of interference with letters were manifold; the 
thoughtless indifference of youth, its 'absorbing interest in 
new scenes, new conditions, unexpected troop movements, 
illness, death — these are a few of them. 

According to the excellent rule of " Mind Your Own 
Business/ 7 it was, speaking generally, no concern of the 

322 



THE UNBREAKABLE LINK WITH " HOME » 323 

Red Cross whether a man wrote or did not write to his 
family. One circumstance alone made it Red Cross busi- 
ness, this, when his family, having no word from or of 
him for weeks, even months, besought the Red Cross to 
find out what the silence meant. The character of their 
letters will be quite well conveyed by the following letter, 
written from Massachusetts and taken at random from the 
files of the Service : 

" I am writing you to ask if you can find out where my 
nephew is or something about him. He enlisted with the 
American Army and the last letter I had from him was 

shortly after his arrival in England. , His name is ■ . 

I am afraid something has happened to him ; please find out 
something for me. I will wait anxiously for your reply." 

A request like this was all that was needed to set the 
entire machinery of the department in motion, to remain 
so until the person sought had been found and the last, 
least inquiry of his family answered. In the case just 
cited, the Service was able to reply two days later that the 
soldier was safe and sound, on duty in a camp in Great 
Britain and that he had written his aunt a letter forty- 
eight hours before the Home Communication officer had 
called upon him. 

This was a comparatively easy bit of work, but as there 
were countless instances of this kind, involving many long 
searches, sixteen words are little enough to employ in 
summing it up. 

In many cases the man whom the Service went out to 
seek was found to be well — and often not a little 
chagrined when told that his family wanted to hear from 
him, as his neglect had so completely escaped him. In 
other cases he was found in hospital, too ill to write or pre- 
vented from doing so by a wound. And sometimes tragedy 
or the shadow of it — " missing " — was the thing upon 
which the department searchers would at last come, in their 
tireless questing. But, whatever the answer chanced to 
be, the Red Cross never failed to send some word to far 



324 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

America. Often the soldier or sailor himself wrote it, 
in other cases one of the women of the Care Committee, 
which gave so much aid in this branch of work, would sit 
at the side of a hospital cot and write at the dictation of the 
sick or wounded man upon it, or even write without his 
knowledge picking out her letter with such fragments of 
personality as he might haltingly have revealed to her in a 
brighter day. 

Sometimes the representative of the Service would write 
to the anxious ones at home just to let them see how much 
interest was being taken in " their boy," and that the Red 
Cross was unflagging in its attentions to those for whose 
aid and comfort it really existed. Such a letter as this 
was sent to a town in the Middle West, from a south of 
England hospital, by one of the searchers of the Service: 

Dear Mrs. : 

I called here yesterday to see your son who is in hospital 
here. I found him almost entirely recovered, with rosy cheeks 
and bright eyes, and apparently quite happy. He has been re- 
ceiving the very best attention and will continue to do so until 
he is quite well. 

I understand that your son has been writing you regularly, 
but I am sending this letter as I know how mothers are apt 
to worry about their boys, and I thought you would like to 
hear from me that your son is getting along so well. By the 
time you receive this he will probably be entirely recovered and 
out of hospital. 

I would like to mention that if at any time you need advice 
or assistance you have only to apply to the branch of the Ameri- 
can Red Cross which is nearest your home to receive at once 
every assistance which is possible. 

It is instances of this kind which show how personal this 
work was, how human and how necessary. 

The Home Communication Service of the Red Cross in 
Great Britain was instituted early in April, 1918, under 
Captain Herbert Edenborough. At that time there had 
been comparatively few American troops in England, so, 



THE UNBREAKABLE LINK WITH " HOME " 325 

in the beginning, there was little work save that of organi- 
zation and preparation. But every minute of this was 
needed for the task to come. For, from the time the 
service was in practical operation until its work virtually 
ended — this being the period from May 1, 1918, to Feb- 
ruary 28, 1919 — more than 112,000 reports were made 
ito Red Cross Headquarters in Washington concerning 
Americans — military, naval and civilian. At one time 
there were 17,000 Americans in hospital in Great Britain, 
6,000 of these being in British institutions to which the 
Service had access at all times for the purposes of visit- 
ing and inquiry. Every one of the men in hospital be- 
came, automatically, a charge of the Service and every 
one was visited and questioned and his case reported to 
the authorities at home. The family or nearest friend 
of each man was notified of his illness or wound, his con- 
dition and whereabouts — the latter as nearly as mili- 
tary censorship would permit — and, more than that, each 
was carefully followed during his entire stay in hospital, 
his transfers and his convalescence and kept in touch with 
his home throughout it all. At the conclusion of its work, 
the Service had 60,000 such cases in detail on file in its 
archives. 

Some idea of the progress of the Home Communication 
work may be gathered from the following figures : Dur- 
ing the first three months in England reports were made 
on about 5,000 cases, 1,000 of which were cases in which 
special reports were made and a special dossier opened. 
During the second three months, ending on September 
30, 1918, about 20,000 cases were handled, of which about 
4,000 were cases involving special reports. During the 
three months ending December 31st, reports were made 
on 30,000 cases of which 8,000 were special cases. In 
many of the special cases above referred to, there were 
inquiries to be made in many quarters and a voluminous 
correspondence in connection therewith. An " ordinary 
case," in the terminology of the Service, was one in which 



326 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

it was possible to tabulate the information as to what bad 
happened to a boy, in list form on a printed blank. The 
" special cases " were those which necessitated detailed 
reports and investigation and inquiry in various quarters. 

When a soldier was discovered to be so ill or so wounded 
as not to be able to write for himself, minute data were 
sent to Washington at short intervals, which would make 
it possible for Headquarters to dispatch frequent letters 
to his relatives telling them how his case was progressing. 

There were, of course, many instances in which these 
soldiers died in hospital in England and then came the 
saddest duty of the Home Communication Service, that 
of sending this news to the ones at home. It was always 
done by a worker on the spot, one who had known the 
man during his illness or at least known something about 
him. This worker gathered all possible details concern- 
ing his last days and then wrote such a letter as the fol- 
lowing, which, by the way, is an authentic one, taken from 
the records of the Service: 

My dear Mrs. : 

Your name has been given to me as the nearest relative of 
-, but through some mischance I do not know your relation- 



ship to him. After all, it matters very little, for no doubt he 
was dear to you, and it is my hope that I may be able to give 
you some details of his last illness, which may not have been 
conveyed to you in the official announcement of his death which 
you have already received. 

He was in the American Red Cross Hospital for a minor 
ailment, but was taken desperately ill about noon of the 30th. 
He had been up and about that morning, but towards noon 
was taken with convulsions, became unconscious and remained 
so until he died about five o'clock on the 31st. An autopsy 
revealed the cause of death to be meningitis. 

Other men in the ward had not known him well, for he had 
only been there a day or two, but they have told me that he 
received a letter at the hospital from a relative in California 
containing some photographs, which pleased him very much. 

I am sorry to have no more details to give you, but the sud- 
denness of his illness makes it impossible. He was buried to- 
day, from the hospital chapel, the service being conducted by the 



THE UNBREAKABLE LINK WITH " HOME " 327 

Eev. ■ . The coffin was covered with an American flag and 

a lovely bunch of lilacs and carnations given by the hospital 
committee. I enclose a spray of flowers from the coffin. 

The Home Communication Service of the Red Cross extends 
to you its sincerest sympathy and hopes that the particulars 
which I have been able to give will in some measure soften the 
blow which has come to you. 

Here is a letter written to the mother of a boy who 
lost his life from injuries received in the torpedoing of a 
transport : 

Dear Mrs. : 

On hearing of the unfortunate torpedoing of the transport 
carrying the regiment of which your son was a member, I at 
once hastened to the port where the survivors had been landed, 
arriving there on the night of the 24th. Early the next morn- 
ing I heard of the injuries which your son had received and was 
grieved to learn later that he died during the night, but I 
thought it would be a comfort to you if I visited the hosiptal 
and learned all I could as to his death. 

I talked for some time to the doctor and orderly who had 
cared for your son. The doctor told me that everything possible 
had been done to save his life, but unfortunately without avail; 
the hospital had very few patients at the time and he had 
therefore been able to give this case the closest personal atten- 
tion. 

I think you will like to hear that in the short time your son 
was in the hospital he endeared himself to those with whom he 
came in contact. They spoke with admiration of his fortitude, 
but what struck them most was his great consideration for 
others. He spoke of you several times and grieved that he would 
probably, because of his injury, not be so useful on the farm 
when he returned home. 

You will be glad to know that the doctor was able to save your 
son all pain. He was unconscious at the end and therefore was 
not able to send you any message, which he would undoubtedly 
have done otherwise. 

At the time of his death he was wearing a signet ring which 
will be forwarded to you. Unfortunately all his other effects 
were lost when the ship was torpedoed. 

You may like to hear that your son's fellow patients in the 
hospital were officers and men of the British warship Vindictive, 
about which you have no doubt read in the papers recently ; they 
all expressed great sorrow for his death. 



328 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

Your son was buried with full military honors in the mili- 
tary cemetery here. Flowers were given by officers and men of 
his regiment. The cemetery is situated in a beautiful spot on 
a hill overlooking the sea, and the grave will always be cared for 
by the Red Cross and military authorities. It was decorated 
by the American Red Cross on Memorial Day. Later on we will 
have a photograph of it sent to you. 

By way of showing the appreciation that was felt for 
this intensely human side of Red Cross work, it is not 
amiss to quote a letter in reply which came to it from 
Texas: 

Just received your sad letter of the 7th of October telling me 
of the death of my dear boy. It is hard, indeed, to give him 
up, but a consolation to know that the Red Cross had him in 
its care in his last hours. I feel that you did everything that 
could be done for him and it is a comfort to us to know that. 
I would like you to send me a photograph of his grave and tell 
me how it is marked, how it will be cared for and also if I could 
be allowed to do anything for it. 

You must know that this is great sorrow to his old mother 
and myself, but we bow in humble submission to God's Will, 
knowing that our boy gave his life for the noblest of causes. 
But, oh, it is so hard — just a young man, twenty-four years 
old. It seemed that he was just entering a life of usefulness, 
but he is only one among thousands cut down in their prime. 

Words are inadequate to express our gratitude to you and to 
the others of the Red Cross, but we are thankful, far more than 
we can tell, for what you did for our only child and for your 
kind words to us. 

Although the greater part of the work of the Home 
Communication Service was in connection with keeping 
the sick and wounded men in touch with their people 
in the States, the almost limitless scope of the Service re- 
sulted in bringing to it many strange requests for help 
and, therefore, carried its activities far afield. One, for 
instance, came from the family of a man born in Turkey 
of Greek parentage, educated in an American institution 
in the Near East and resident in Turkey at the outbreak 



THE UNBREAKABLE LINK WITH " HOME " 329 

of the war. This man had been forced, against his will 
into the Turkish service. He was afterward captured 
by the British and held a prisoner in Palestine. Rela- 
tions of his, residing in the United States, did not wish 
him returned to Turkey when he should be released, but 
asked if the Red Cross could not have him sent to America. 
The Service approached the British War Office with this 
request and was advised of a method by which this rather 
irregular proceeding might be carried out, and in time, 
it was effected. 

At another time the Service was requested by a family 
in America to find two young girls, sisters, who had gone 
to England and of whom all trace had been lost by their 
relatives. The information given, upon which to begin 
such a search, was both conflicting and incorrect — and 
England was a large country. But the Red Cross 
managed at last to discover them both. While one was 
found to be in domestic service in England, the other was 
attached to the British Forces in France a»nd both were 
well and in good circumstances as the Service hastened 
to report. 

American soldiers in France frequently asked the Red 
Cross to locate their relatives in England. One soldier 
wrote that he had not heard from his father for several 
years, when he had written from a certain address in the 
East End of London. Inquiry at this address led to a 
series of addresses and eventually to the father himself, 
who had not known whether his son was alive or dead. 
In this way they were brought together to their mutual 
delight. A much more difficult task was imposed by a 
soldier from California who, about to go to England 
on leave, wanted to visit the relations of his step-mother. 
All he knew about her was her name — a not at all un- 
common surname — and that her people lived in or near 
London. This was a problem for Sherlock Holmes! 
However the Red Cross went modestly to work and not 
only found the stepmother but made arrangements for 



330 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

the soldier's visit. This tracing business came to be one 
of the standard tasks of the Home Communication bureau 
and it was often asked to locate people who, before the 
war, had lived in foreign countries and become lost to 
their American relatives when hostilities turned Europe 
topsy-turvy. Sometimes it received and delivered special 
messages from America for individual soldiers or sailors, 
such messages generally referring to the death of a rela- 
tive, or some other subject of great personal importance. 
Also it took on the work of finding scores of Americans 
who had enlisted in the British or French armies before 
America entered the war and was instrumental in numer- 
ous cases in having them repatriated. One of the letters 
it received in this relation was from a city in Virginia. 
It ran: 

I am writing to learn the condition of my son, Lieutenant 
an American in the Canadian Army. I received a mes- 



sage six weeks ago saying he was in an American hospital in 
London, convalescent and able to walk about. Is he still pro- 
gressing? I know it will be a long time before he will be able 
to walk well, but I would like to know if there are any compli- 
cations and if his general health is good. I will be very grate- 
ful to you if you will write me fully about his exact condition. 

The Eed Cross replied that this officer, who had suffered 
a compound fracture of both legs, had been granted six 
months' leave and was expected to sail almost immediately 
for home. 

In its " detective " role, the Service once or twice came 
into contact with obvious enemy propaganda. This was 
widespread in America when the Communication Bureau 
began its work and all sorts of false reports were being 
circulated with the object of making Germany feared. 
In one instance it was stated, with all the authority which 
rumors assumed, that an American dentist and his entire 
family had been killed in the wreck of their home dur- 
ing an aerial bomb raid. What the Service's investigation 
disclosed was — the dentist in his office, his waiting-room 



THE UNBREAKABLE LINK WITH " HOME " 331 

full of patients. No bomb bad ever dropped within miles 
of bis borne. At anotber time it was reported in several 
communities in tbe States tbat American soldiers in Eng- 
land bad been court-martialed and shot for certain grave 
offenses. Tbe Ked Cross, to whom these reports were sent, 
gave the matter into the hands of the Communication 
Service with the result that the soldiers said to have been 
executed were found to be alive and on duty, and, further- 
more, without a blemish on their records. 

Nor does this exhaust the list of unusual but valuable 
services this Ked Cross Bureau rendered. It encountered 
boys in hospital who, having been thus separated from 
their units, were without pay and at once arranged that 
their requirements in this respect be fulfilled, much to 
their comfort and relief. It remitted to America thou- 
sands of dollars for soldiers and sailors who wished their 
savings sent home and asked the Eed Cross to attend to it 
for them. It hunted up mail for soldiers in hospital 
when the army authorities had failed, through lack of 
proper notice, to forward it. It even busied itself obtain- 
ing full particulars about babies and small children for 
persons in America who desired to adopt orphans and 
foundlings who were then in England, and forwarded 
complete instructions as to bow this might be legally and 
properly accomplished. 

An interesting incident is worth recording in connec- 
tion with a facsimile lithographed letter which was given 
to American soldiers upon their arrival in England. This 
letter, in the handwriting of His Majesty King George 
and signed by him, welcomed American soldiers to British 
soil. Hundreds of them were sent home as souvenirs, 
with the result that in some instances, when the boys were 
not heard from, the relatives forthwith, wrote to the King 
himself, asking him to take steps to have their boys traced 
and to perform other little acts in their behalf. Keceipt 
of these letters was always courteously acknowledged from 
Buckingham Palace to the relatives and the letters were 



332 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

then passed on to the Home Communication Service for 
its information and attention. 

Narration of the work of the personnel of this Service 
is incomplete if it does not refer to the courage and loyalty 
of all who served. During the influenza epidemic, the 
work was suddenly more than quadrupled. This, under 
ordinary circumstances, would have been a sufficiently 
difficult situation to handle, but it was rendered doubly 
so by the fact that at least half the Department's workers 
became ill from the same cause. Those that were left, 
however, worked as they had never worked before. All 
who were able stuck to their posts and worked night and 
day as long as human endurance would permit. The 
workers in the hospitals deserve especial credit. Where it 
was allowed, they went among the patients in wards ait 
great personal risk and carried on their labors as in 
ordinary cases. In this connection it should be mentioned 
that all the Red Cross workers in hospitals have invariably 
visited, when permitted to do so, cases even of a com- 
municable nature, if the case was serious and a soldier's 
life in danger, so that he might send a message to his rela- 
tives on the other side. This dutv was never shirked in 

*j 

the history of the Red Cross in Great Britain. 

The proper prosecution of a service so extensive — be- 
cause it was the determination of the Red Cross that no 
American soldier or sailor in hospital in Great Britain 
should fail to receive every attention and that his family 
should have word of him as soon as he arrived there — 
necessitated both a large working staff and the establish- 
ment of special branch offices in all the hospital centers 
in the Kingdom. These were at Liverpool, Winchester, 
Portsmouth, Paignton, Dartford, Tottenham, Southamp- 
ton, Birmingham and Edinburgh. They represented 
either great base hospitals or places from which it was 
possible easily to reach hospitals in their vicinity. In 
the case of distinctly British institutions which, from 
time to time, received American sick or wounded, the 



THE UNBREAKABLE LINK WITH " HOME " 333 

Service relied upon the British and Canadian Eed Cross 
which were prompt to send word of American arrivals. 
At the time the Service reached its maximum of effective- 
ness, and this was within a very short time of its incep- 
tion, it had representatives in every American Eed Cross, 
Base and Camp hospital, and in every British hospital 
to which American sick or wounded were taken. Its 
workers numbered nearly four hundred. 

In its search for missing men — for this was another 
task assumed by the Service — the hospitals were of great 
aid. A list of " missing " was published twice a month 
by the military authorities and a copy of this was given 
to each of the searchers to be checked up with the list 
of all Americans in hospital in Great Britain. A 

searcher notes, for instance, that John Smith of the th 

Kegiment is reported missing. Keference to the hospital 
list shows that James Jones of the same regiment is in 
such and such an institution, so an immediate visit is paid 
to James Jones and he is asked : 

" Did you ever know a man in your regiment named 
John Smith ? » 

" Sure I did," Jones replies. " I knew him well, a little 
fellow with sandy hair — some boy, too ! ,J 

With this as a hopeful preface the searcher will pro- 
ceed to find out whether Jones was in the same action 
in which Smith was reported missing, and whether Jones 
saw Smith during the fight that day or, particularly, after 
it was all over. Then Jones replies that he saw him 
blown to pieces or taken prisoner or wounded or has no 
knowledge whatever of Smith beyond that he was still 
fighting when he himself was wounded early in the en- 
gagement and sent to the rear. If Jones has not served 
to settle the question of Smith, other men of the same 
regiment are subsequently found and interrogated, or per- 
haps some one in a different organization may have seen 
him and disclose what happened to him. By this means 
it was possible, very often to determine definitely the 



334 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

fate of men listed " missing," and fortunately now and 
then they were found, wounded but alive, in some distant 
hospital. Then the Red Cross had indeed a letter to 
write home! 

Quite aside from its hospital activities, the Service 
had much to do with American prisoners of war. It was 
inevitable that certain information, rumors, reports about 
such prisoners should filter into Great Britain and at first 
principally as to officers of the United States Medical 
Corps who had been attached to the British Army and 
been captured during the German advance in the spring 
of 1918. Later, news came through as to American 
prisoners generally. All such information the Service 
could obtain was carefully collected and sent to that Red 
Cross aid center at which it would prove of most value 
in behalf of the prisoner or persons in question. This 
frequently resulted in the interests of these unfortunates 
being cared for much sooner than otherwise would have 
been the case. It often happened that prisoners so helped 
through the indirect agency of the Home Communication 
Service would turn up later in London where the Red 
Cross officers would invariably produce the documents in 
relation to their cases and permit the soldiers to read them. 
They were always interested in the manner in which the 
Red Cross had discovered and taken care of them, and 
were unfailing in their appreciation of the steps which 
had been taken to see that their families were provided 
with all possible news as to their welfare while in prison 
camps and that they had been supplied with proper cloth- 
ing, food and other comforts. 

After the signing of the Armistice about 600 American 
soldiers and civilians were repatriated through England. 
In all of these cases the Home Communication depart- 
ment met the men and obtained information from them 
as to the camps in which they had been held, their present 
state of health, where they were going, their next of kin 
in America and any message which they wished sent to 



THE UNBREAKABLE LINK WITH " HOME " 335 

their people. Having done this, the Red Cross cabled 
all the details to Washington for the benefit of the rela- 
tives of the prisoners. As can be easily understood, some 
of these cables were very long indeed. One, for example, 
occupied five sheets of quarto paper. Besides sending the 
data to Washington, the Red Cross supplied information 
in connection with these arrivals to the Headquarters of 
the Army and of the Navy, to the American Red Cross 
in Paris, to the Red Cross Prisoners of War Committee 
in Berne, and, in the case of civilians, to the American 
Consul General in London. 

In pursuance of instructions from " G. H. Q.," the 
Home Communion Service undertook the long task of 
registering and photographing the graves- of the 2,500 
American soldiers buried in Great Britain and arranging 
for the erection of suitable crosses above them. Copies of 
these photographs will in time be sent by the Red Cross 
to the families of the men. The Red Cross photogra- 
phers entrusted with this extensive work were requested 
to report upon the general state of all these widely scat- 
tered cemeteries — there is one, containing a single grave, 
on a bleak island off the Scottish coast — so that if any of 
them be not in a condition befitting the resting place of 
American dead, steps may be taken to rehabilitate them 
without delay. 

" Home Service," as distinct from " Home Communica- 
tion," as it dealt with all matters at home which were a 
cause of anxiety or worry to the American soldiers over- 
sea, was another personal task of the Red Cross. A large 
number of the cases to which it attended concerned allot- 
ments and the welfare of the families of soldiers in the 
United States. Many cases related to lack of news from 
home on account of missed or strayed mail, which the 
Bureau often successfully traced and delivered. It was 
also consulted in many business matters, some involving 
litigation, some the practical disposition of property and 
the adjustment of commercial affairs. 



336 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

It may not be uninteresting to cite a few cases which 
have an especial appeal to the sympathies: One soldier, 
a native of a European country hut later naturalized as 
an American, had left in the country of his birth a wife 
and five small children. He was abruptly informed that 
his wife had died and also that money he had forwarded, 
and which he supposed his family was receiving, had never 
reached its destination. His troubles were further com- 
plicated by the ordering home of his unit. Probably he 
was the only man in it for whom this was not the best 
of news, but the thought of leaving his small children 
destitute and unprotected in Europe made his situation 
distressing. The Red Cross, through the Home Service 
Bureau, represented the state of affairs to the army author- 
ities, who were willing, under the circumstances, to trans- 
fer this soldier to a unit which was to remain in England 
for the time being. Also the Bureau communicated with 
the American Consul in the city nearest that in which 
the children lived and, by endorsing the soldier's applica- 
tion for a furlough, enabled him to see them and arrange 
for their care until he should be able to send for them 
to join him in America. 

Another soldier was told of the death of his wife in the 
United States, which left their small daughter homeless. 
Through Washington headquarters, the Bureau turned the 
matter over to a local Red Cross Chapter which under- 
took the proper care of the little child. 

Several marital problems were brought to the atten- 
tion of the Bureau, involving property interests and vari- 
ous personal perplexities. One, for example, was that of a 
soldier who heard that his wife had, in his absence, di- 
vorced him, or tried to do it, had married again and sold 
her half interest in their real estate. He wanted infor- 
mation regarding the validity of such a divorce and advice 
upon his property situation, all of which was forthwith 
given to him. 

Through the excellent organization of Home Service 



THE UNBREAKABLE LINK WITH "HOME" 337 

work in the United States, matters of this kind had the 
attention of lawyers representing the local Chapters and 
the men, whose troubles were thus taken care of, were 
made more efficient soldiers and sailors because of their 
knowledge that their affairs were in the competent hands 
of the American Red Cross. 



CHAPTEE XX 

A SOLDIER^ JOKE AND WHAT CAME OP IT ! 

AMEKICA1STS, of all the peoples of the earth, have, 
probably, the keenest interest in what may compre- 
hensively be called " the news. 77 It is an insatiable crav- 
ing to know " what 7 s going on " anywhere, everywhere. 
In the great cities of America, new editions of their news- 
papers succeed one another almost hourly throughout the 
day. Express trains catch them up as they come from 
the presses and speed them in all directions for hundreds 
of miles. The smaller communities rely upon these edi- 
tions to supplement their own less pretentious but no less 
important journals. Editors lie awake o 7 nights devising 
plans whereby they may hasten publication and distribu- 
tion of the news which flows in ceaselessly from the cable, 
the telegraph line and the myriad other sources of supply. 
Americans read newspapers everywhere, in trains, street- 
cars and subways, in their own motors, even in the street 
as they walk. And countless thousands of them read, not 
merely one favorite paper a day, but three or even four, 
determined evidently, that not one scrap of appealing 
information shall escape them. 

This may be a national " habit, 77 fostered, perhaps, by 
the newspapers themselves. But, confirmed in it, as 
Americans are, what was more natural than that the 
American soldiers who arrived in England should feel 
themselves quite cut off from the sort of news which most 
interested them. To a conspicuously large majority of the 
troops this meant events in their own home regions, local 
politics, baseball scores, boxing results and news of the 

338 



A SOLDIER'S JOKE -AND WHAT CAME OF IT! 339. 

great training camps in the States. For, it must be re- 
membered, these American soldiers were not alone drawn 
from the so-called sophisticated centers, but also from the 
far more numerous inconspicuous communities, whose 
horizon lay just at the village outskirts. 

In their new surroundings — so dismayingly new to 
most of them — they could get the English newspapers, of 
course, but in supplying their needs these were about as 
valuable as a Babylonian brick. What English newspaper 
would at any time, even in peace days, devote space to 
— well, to a World Series ? It just isn't done. 

Those who have a wider interest in affairs and those 
who stayed at home may, thoughtlessly, consider this 
slight deprivation in view of what the soldier must expect 
when he goes to war. But it was a deprivation, none the 
less, and markedly accentuated the distance which lay be- 
tween him and " home." And an army physician will 
tell you that " homesickness " was one of the chief ills 
his corps encountered among even the most rugged of our 

troops. 

This isolation, so to speak, of the Americans was brought 
to the attention of the Red Cross by a fortunate _ little 
incident which happened in June, 1918, at Morn Hill, m 
Hampshire, or " Hants," if you will, where there was an 
American Rest Camp and a large Camp Hospital. At the 
time there were several thousand soldiers in the camp 
on their way to France and about 250 men in hospital. 
In the course of an inspection tour of the camp, Captain 
Frank M. America, of the Red Cross staff in London, 
was asked by one of the soldiers, with proverbial American 
curiosity, what his particular " job " with the Red Cross 
happened to be. Captain America replied that he was 
Director of Information. 

"Well, couldn't you direct a little information about 
Winsted, Connecticut, down here?" was the instant in- 
quiry. "I don't even know if it's still on the map, 
honest." Then, drawing a crumpled English newspaper 



340 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

from the breast of his shirt, the soldier spread it out and 
added, with the emphasis of despair : 

" Say, I've been reading these things for three weeks 
and I'm wearing out my eyes looking for news. Why, 
they could burn the old red barn and kill the cat and 
everything and I wouldn't know anything about it till I 
got a letter next Christmas. And the Giants and the Cubs 
and the Ked Sox; say, they're all dead if you go by this 
paper ! Take it from me, if you want to help people down 
here just shoot along a little news once in a while, tell us 
something about what's going on in God's country, 'cause 
it's a long way from here." 

The appeal was irresistible and was repeated in varying 
degrees of vehemence by half a dozen or more of the men 
in both camp and hospital. They wanted their kind of 
news. 

And what was true of Morn Hill was true of many 
similar spots in England and Scotland, for the American 
troops were coming in to build and equip camps and avia- 
tion bases in half a hundred out-of-the-way places. The 
men were not then arriving in great numbers but there 
were 200 or 300 mechanics and student aviators at every 
one of these stations. In addition, there were in hospitals 
throughout England hundreds of wounded Americans who 
had fought with either the British or the Canadians be- 
fore their own country's entry into the conflict, and to 
many of these the States must have seemed as far off as 
the moon. 

Captain America, a newspaper man in INew York for 
many years, who came into the Red Cross Commission 
from the London Bureau of the Associated Press, had 
learned a short time before that the United States Com- 
mittee on Public Information received a budget of news 
each day by wireless from America. It had been collected 
from every State in the Union and a considerable part of 
it was the very kind of news the soldiers so eagerly 
wanted. As nearly all the English news journals, through 



A SOLDIER'S JOKE — AND WHAT CAME OF IT! 341 

scarcity of paper, had been reduced in size to two pages 
and as the chronicle of the war took precedence over every- 
thing else, there was, frankly, no room in them for dis- 
tinctively American news even had the editors been in the 
habit of publishing it. 

And all of this is by way of preface to the birth of The 
Daily News Bulletin of the American Red Cross, for it 
came into the world the day after Captain America's visit 
to Morn Hill. Arrangements were made whereby the 
daily wireless service became available and on the morn- 
ing of July 20th, 1918, the Bulletin first lifted up its 
small voice in the hubbub of the world. And by way 
of answer to the soldiers' yearning for news of " what's 
going on in God's country," it submitted, among others, 
these items, the first of which was the leading article : 

Chicago, July IT — The Chicago Nationals today beat Phila- 
delphia 2 to 1 in a game which lasted 21 innings. It was the 
longest game of the season and within one inning of the Na- 
tional League record game of 22 innings played between Brook- 
lyn and Pittsburgh in 1917. The American League's record 
game was 24 innings between Boston and Philadelphia in 1916. 

San Francisco, July 19 — Mayor James Rolff today an- 
nounced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for 
Governor. 

New York, July 19 — The new Lexington Avenue subway was 
opened for service here to-day. 

New York, July 19 — News of the A m erican-Prench offensive 
has been received with great enthusiasm throughout the United 
States. Cheering crowds have gathered everywhere and news- 
papers have been sold as fast as the presses could turn them out. 
In Wall Street business is suspended whenever any war news 
arrives over the tickers. 

In this first Daily Bulletin there were nine news items 
in all, the others relating mainly to war activities in 
America. It was a single sheet of paper, a bit larger 
than ten by seven inches with a printed Red Cross heading 



342 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

in red, " run off " on an old-fashioned, inconvenient 
duplicating machine, the only kind available at the 
moment in all London. By dint of time and labor, 250 
copies were procured early enough to catch the mail trains 
which would insure their delivery that day at such rea- 
sonably near points as Southampton, Winchester, and 
Liverpool. The Red Cross camp and hospital repre- 
sentatives to whom they were dispatched were requested 
to distribute them " as long as they last." Copies were 
also sent by messenger to all the London hospitals in which 
there were American soldiers. 

The effect that this small and not very well dressed 
journalistic child produced was practically instantaneous. 
Within two days letters began fluttering into London Head- 
quarters in comment and compliment and every last one 
of them asked that such and such a number of copies 
be sent daily to the undersigned without fail, as the men 
had all save eaten the first issue. One soldier in the Red 
Cross hospital at Mossley Hill, in Liverpool, wrote : 

" It isn't a Chicago Sunday newspaper, but out here it looks 
like one to me. That stuff about the Cubs is O. K. You don't 
have to guess that I'm from Chi." 

News of the publication of the Daily Bulletin ran from 
camp to camp, from hospital to hospital throughout Great 
Britain with an unbelievable speed. As the days went 
on, more letters arrived, from both army and navy, ask- 
ing that scores of stations and bases be put on the mailing 
list. One was from Admiral Sims' headquarters, another 
from the Duke of Sutherland, who said he knew of no other 
way in which to get American news promptly; still an- 
other came from Rear Admiral Philip Andrews, in com- 
mand of the American naval coaling station and mine- 
sweeping base at Cardiff, in Wales. The American 
Chamber of Commerce in London asked that it, too, be in- 
cluded in the list, while a fifth letter was signed by the 
senior medical officer of a British Military Hospital who 



A SOLDIER'S JOKE — AND WHAT CAME OF IT! 343 

asked in the name of a number of wounded Americans in 
his care. The Daily Bulletin had suddenly achieved the 
importance of a metropolitan journal! 

After its fourth appearance, when paper in sufficient 
quantity had become available, this news urchin increased 
in size overnight, outgrowing his clothes and lengthening 
out to a sturdy youngster of thirteen inches, but with the 
same, unmistakable red head. He was enabled now to 
carry considerably more news to the camps and hospitals. 

Nor was his amazing growth in the length of his coat 
alone. During the twelve days of July — for the Bul- 
letin, throughout its life, appeared with equal promptness 
on Sundays — the total number of copies issued was 
less than two thousand. In August, by the aid of printed 
address labels and a duplicating machine capable of pro- 
ducing 3,000 impressions an hour, it was possible to sup- 
ply a demand for thirty thousand copies. In September 
the number rose to fifty thousand and in October leaped 
to a total " sworn circulation " for the month of more 
than seventy-five thousand copies! And it was only a 
little, one-page news sheet, printed from a stencil on not 
very good paper — born of a soldier's half -jocular re- 
quest for " a little news once in a while from God's 
country." 

But it was read with homesick eagerness at every Ameri- 
can Military Camp and Naval Base in Great Britain. 
It was posted on the bulletin boards of ships and rest 
camps, of hospitals, and Red Cross stations everywhere, 
even on the rugged Ninth Century wall of the Parish 
Church at Immingham, in England, where the Pilgrim 
Fathers worshipped before embarking for America in the 
Mayflower. It was read aloud to hundreds of sick and 
wounded men in their hospital cots and tucked into count- 
less letters as a souvenir for the " home folks " in the 
States. The fighting men and their commanders were not 
the only ones it served. It went each day to the Ameri- 
can Ambassador in London, to all the American Consuls 



344 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

in Great Britain and to the American Legations in Den- 
mark, Norway, and Sweden. And who shall say that 
some one, even in so high a seat, was not interested to 
know, now and then, the result of a " double header " at 
home ? 

How well it served the soldiers' needs is betokened in 
scores of letters received from officers and men in camps 
and hospitals throughout Great Britain. An officer at one 
of the camps was so emphatic about the success of the 
publication that he wrote to the Director of Informa- 
tion: 

" If this Bulletin is discontinued you will be court-martialed 
and shot ! " 

In order that the delivery of the Bulletin might be un- 
failingly made in the great areas about Southampton and 
Winchester, where there were at one time not less than 
25,000 American troops, it was placed on a fast train 
at noon every day which made the run to Southampton in 
an hour and a half. Arriving there at half-past 1 o'clock 
in the afternoon, the bundles were caught up by a man 
on a motorcycle, who covered his long route at top speed 
so that all the Bulletins were in the hands of the soldiers 
before 6 o'clock in the evening. 

It was obviously impossible to effect such distribution 
universally, but well within two days the Daily Bulletin 
had borne its " home news " to the men of the United 
States Destroyer Flotilla, at Queenstown in Ireland; to 
Scapa Flow, in the bleak Orkneys north of Scotland, where 
the American Battle Squadron No. 6 was joined with the 
British Grand Fleet ; to Rossyth, on the east coast of Scot- 
land, the port of the American cruiser fleet; to the U. S. 
Naval Base Hospital at Strathpeffer, in the Highlands 
and to Inverness, the American mine laying base on the 
eastern coast. 

In its larger size, the Daily Bulletin was enabled to make 
a feature of such soul-stirring news as the World Series 



A SOLDIER'S JOKE -AND WHAT CAME OF IT! 345 

games of September, 1918, between Chicago and Boston. 
It published a prefatory resume of each game with a 
complete "box score" appended. And, of course, 
throughout the season it featured all the results of the 
National and American Leagues. In the autumn it gave 
the college football scores, with brief comment on the 
games, not infrequently listing in a Sunday issue as many 
as twenty-eight games played in America the day before. 
All important political events were presented t;o its readers, 
even if such events were only of importance in the smaller 
communities. Sporting news — racing, boxing, golf, 
hockey, tennis and field and track athletics — was fur- 
nished in such detail as space permitted. Then, too, there 
were condensed reports from the several battlefronts as the 
events there concerned the American forces and almost 
daily news of the American Navy in European waters. 
The progress of the Liberty Loan, and of ship building and 
agriculture in the United States were related whenever 
they came forward in the stupendous history America 
was making. 

Now and then the Daily Bulletin was a worthy com- 
petitor of the press of London, notably on November 11th, 
1918, when in the issue for that day appeared the follow- 
ing: 

A phone message just received from the United States Com- 
mittee on Public Information said that the Armistice was signed 
by Germany early this (Monday) morning and that hostilities 
ceased at 11 o'clock. 

Not one newspaper in London " beat " the Bulletin on 
that because an " edition " was issued the instant the 
news arrived and the little Eed Cross journal was in the 
hands of the American soldiers in the city as London's 
elderly, lugubrious-looking newspaper vendors appeared 
with their armf uls of papers. 

And the Bulletin was equally prompt just the day be- 
fore, November 10, with the announcement that the Kaiser 



346 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

had abdicated and that the Crown Prince had renounced 
his right to the succession. 

In its publication of battle news the Bulletin could 
invariably " beat " the London papers. Such news was 
given out each day at noon at the British War Office in 
Whitehall and not more than half an hour later the Ameri- 
can news had been selected, printed in the Bulletin and 
the distribution begun. By that time the London papers 
were just setting it up. 

One melancholy paragraph in each issue was devoted 
to an enumeration of " Deaths in America yesterday/' 
Singularly enough, this was generally considered one of 
the most valuable services rendered by the publication, as 
it was a comprehensive necrological record of important 
personages throughout the Nation. 

There was never the least doubt, from the very begin- 
ning, that the Bulletin was read, line by line. Bequests 
for further information upon published news were con- 
stantly received from the camps. Delay in the receipt of 
complete returns of the November, 1918, elections in 
America brought in a flood of letters, and in answer to 
them a special two-page edition of the Bulletin was issued 
on November 7 giving the final official results. Every 
effort was made to comply with the soldiers' requests, 
whatever labor it involved. When a man in the Win- 
chester camp asked for the name of the Senator who 
had been appointed by the Governor of South Carolina 
to succeed Ben Tillman, it was necessary to cable to 
Washington for the information. But in two days the 
answer came back and was duly included in the Bulletin's 
news. 

Another instance of the closeness with which the little 
paper was read became evident the day after the publi- 
cation of an item, relating the occurrence of a $30,000 
fire in the business district of Marchmont. The cable 
had not transmitted the name of the State, so on the 



A SOLDIER'S JOKE — AND WHAT CAME OF IT! 347 

following day the Bulletin received six letters from men 
hailing from six Marchmonts in six different States, each 
asking whether it was his particular Marchmont. 

During the period of America's maximum military 
activities in Great Britain, the daily issue of the Bulletin 
ran, not infrequently, to eight thousand copies. And 
whenever a convoy of American troops reached English 
waters, a special edition of that day's Bulletin was printed, 
dispatched by camion with the canteen supplies, and a copy 
given to each soldier as he came ashore. As many as five 
thousand copies were often thus distributed in one day. 

The soldiers' appreciation of this was very keen and 
very prompt, because it was the first news of America 
that they had had for nearly two weeks. And they gave 
as much attention to their Bulletins as they did to the 
hot coffee, buns, chocolate and cigarettes they were re- 
ceiving from the canteen workers. It required no end of 
skill to hold a tin cup of coffee, a bun, a bar of chocolate, 
and a Bulletin and read and eat and talk at one and the 
same time, but thousands of American troops did it. If 
a recording phonograph could have been set up beside any 
one of the groups of men who had passed through the can- 
teen ceremony, the disc would have delivered to posterity 
something of this kind : 

" Hey, Bo, come across with a quarter ; the Giants 
finished 'way ahead of Cincinnati — there it is, see it ? 
— right at the top of the page — that stuff about the 
Georgia peach crop — cut it, kid, my mouth's watering — 
say, the Eritzies are on the run all right — go ask her your- 
self, she'll give you another cup — that Jack Dempsey 
cert'n'y packs the wallop — he put Levinsky out of busi- 
ness in the third — you guys keep still, there's a fellow 
just died out in Des Moines — I'll give you my chocolate 
for your cigarettes. Say, get this : Ty Cobb's a captain 
in the army — Look out, you're spilling that all over me — 
if you can't drink it, give it to me — Gee, there's been a 



348 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

big fire out in my home town ! — fifteen thousand dollars 
gone up — that's all right, Shorty, forget it, it wasn't 
yours ! " 

Many of the news paragraphs which made the Bulletin 
valuable to the troops would have brought delight (and 
probably had) to the heart of many a country editor. 
While, so far as the writer can find, there was never a 
reference to Cy Higgins' red heifer nor to Squire Hol- 
comb's prize-winning pumpkin, the Bulletin did give to an 
eager audience such paragraphs as these, which have been 
taken at random from its imperishable files : 

Laramie, Wyo., July 21 — Oil has been struck at Bock Creek, 
45 miles northwest of here. 

Saratoga Springs, July 29 — Chauncey Olcott celebrated his 
61st birthday by making a series of patriotic speeches. 

Frostburg, Md., Aug. 3 — The fire which has been raging for 
many years in the " Burning Mine " near Vale Summit was put 
out to-day. 

Rochester, N. Y., Aug. 19 — Kate Gleason, daughter of 
James Gleason, a wealthy manufacturer, has been elected Presi- 
dent of the First National Bank of East Rochester. 

Elyria, O., Sept. 14 — A baby boy left on the doorstep of the 
Memorial Hospital here has been named Woodrow Foch Per- 
shing by the nurses who declared that the baby was entitled to 
a good, up-to-date name. 

Biloxi, Miss., Oct. 15 — A local fisherman to-day captured a 
devil fish weighing 1,700 pounds. It measured thirteen feet. 
He caught it in a trawl net near Deer Island. It required 
three motor-boats to haul it into port. 

Jerome, Ariz., Oct. 16 — A bond issue of $100,000 was ap- 
proved to-day for building a new City Hall and making im- 
provements to the fire, sewer, and road system. 

Boston, Nov. 2 — Nicholas Boland, for many years head 
porter of the Adams House, died here to-day, leaving an estate 
of $50,000, a large part of which goes to charity. 

Seattle, Nov. 14 — The town of Berlin, 40 miles from Seattle, 
celebrated the signing of the Armistice by changing its name 
to " Miller River." 

Half Moon Bay, Cal., Nov. 19 — r John Pitcher, 92 years old, 
has been reelected Justice of the Peace, an office he has held 
for 35 years. 

Bristol, Ten., Nov. 22 — A fire which started in the base- 



A SOLDIER'S JOKE -AND WHAT CAME OF IT! 349 

ment of Dossers Bros. Department store destroyed property 
worth $750,000. , , , - 

Saginaw, Mich., Dec. 1Y - Diamonds valued at thousands of 
dollars were stolen from the T. Loney Stores m daylight. The 
thief was a prospective customer who dashed out in the absence 
of the clerk and has not been captured. _ 

Orleans, Gal., Dec. 19 — Mary Dupen, the oldest Indian, is 
dead here at the age of 115. 

Sheridan. Wyo., Dec. 24 — Granney and Gardner, the two 
newly elected State Senators from this district, will shoot craps 
to decide which gets the four year term and which the two year 

term. .,,. „ 

Chicago, Jan. 8 - William Wrigley, the millionaire ^man- 
ufacturer, to-day took out an insurance policy for $1,00U,UUU. 

Verona, K J., Jan. 16 -A bob-tailed wild cat, the first seen 
in Essex county for 50 years, entered the village last night, kill- 
ing several chickens and arousing the whole town. 

Ithaca, Jan. 23 — Hard Cider was officially classed as 
"alcoholic liquor" here to-day when the police seized 100 
gallons in raids on sixteen local stores. 

The interest the Bulletin created among the soldiers ex- 
tended even to the staid British press which was frank in 
admiration of its enterprise, the Pall Mall Gazette of Oc- 
tober 3, 1918, adding its voice in the following paragraph: 

" The Daily Bulletin issued under the direction of Captain 
America certainly helps to make the fighters from across the 
sea feel at home in Britain, keeping theni au courant of just 
the American news in which they are most interested. 

As a purveyor of "home news," the Bulletin was in 
equal favor with the highest officers in the United States 
military establishment in England, who found it upon 
their desks every day and read it as religiously as they 
did their mail. Major General John Biddle, Command- 
ing the American Forces in Great Britain, whose Head- 
quarters in the Grosvenor Mansions in London faced the 
Eed Cross Headquarters, said that the Bulletin did 
more than any other one thing to keep the B,ed Cross be- 
fore the men," and if, by mischance, the day's issue was 
late in reaching either him or one of the members of his 
numerous staff, the telephone would ring with an inquiry 



350 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

for it, or an orderly present himself with General This's 
or Colonel That's compliments to say that he had not yet 
received his usnal copy. 

Such popularity as this made necessary the continua- 
tion of the Bulletin long after the cessation of hostilities 
and, indeed until most of the Red Cross work had come 
to an end and all save a small part of the American forces 
had sailed for home. 

THE WEEKLY BULLETIN 

The younger but far more pretentious brother of the 
Daily Bulletin was the Weekly Bulletin. This came into 
being on August 7, 1918, as an eight-page illustrated 
journal, decidedly " cityfied " in its dress of paper, type 
and reproduced photographs. That it was intended to be 
a very different sort of person from its " small town " 
relative was announced in the greeting addressed " To All 
Red Cross Workers " in the first number : 

" This is going to be a little newspaper of our own. Whether 
it will be a little newspaper or a paper of little news will de- 
pend on you. The purpose of the Bulletin, which will be issued 
at regular intervals, is to acquaint the workers in various dis- 
tricts with what is going on in other districts and other de- 
partments." 

Following this came a plea to the workers to send in 
" copy " and photographs on anything of news interest 
which came within their ken. 

The rearing of this youngster was entrusted to Lieu- 
tenant Charles D. Morris, Yale '05, who also came into 
the Red Cross after extensive newspaper experience, first 
on the Sun in New York and then in the Associated 
Press Bureaus of ]New York and London. 

As the Weekly was designed for distribution simply 
among the Red Cross personnel in England, Trance, and 
America, it achieved no such publication as the Daily. 



A SOLDIER'S JOKE — AND WHAT CAME OF IT! 351 

But its circulation rose to 2,500 a week and there re- 
mained until it was discontinued, owing to the closing 
down of Red Cross work, the last issue, ~No. 20, bearing 
date of December 18, 1918. 

During its life it did valuable service in the reading 
rooms of rest camps and hospitals and was widely quoted 
in the British press, which frequently published its stories 
and articles in full. This was particularly true of such 
important London newspapers as the Times, Morning 
Post, Daily Telegraph, Daily News, Daily Graphic, and 
Sunday Times. It was sent to all the Eed Cross Chapters 
in America which, in turn, reprinted in their weekly 
bulletins such articles as were of interest to their own 
circle of readers. 

According to regulations, the proof-sheets of each 
Weekly Bulletin had to be submitted to the Censor be- 
fore publication, but not once did his searching blue 
pencil delete a word. That he read it was evident from 
the marks his pencil made when he reread a particular 
passage in fear that something might be wrong with it. 
But there never was. As Morris himself remarked, " As 
a newspaper man I have battled too often with the Censor 
not to know what to leave in a story and what to take out 
before it ever got into his hands." 

The articles which appeared in the Weekly, many 
written by skilled hands, many more by persons who, 
until impelled by the sheer humanity of some bit of work, 
had never tried to write, — these articles graphically re- 
cited much of the history of the Red Cross in Great 
Britain. They touched upon practically every phase of 
its activity and, in many instances, gave the reader the 
visualizing aid of photographs. And too much cannot be 
said in appreciation of countless articles which, perhaps 
relating ever so briefly the personal side of Red Cross 
work, reached deep into the reader's heart. 

The reasonable limits of this chapter render it impos- 



352 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

sible to reprint here the many articles which have appealed 
to the present writer, but there are two upon which he 
insists : 

The first one was republished in several London news- 
papers and attracted attention in America also. In the 
day of its appearance, [November 20, 1918, the Censor 
would have forbidden mention of the location of the Ger- 
man prison camp about which the story centers. But it 
may be said now that it was at Dartford, only a few hun- 
dred yards from the U. S. Base Hospital whose Armistice 
Day celebration has been related. In this prison camp 
there were 1,200 prisoners under the care of twenty 
American Army Surgeons, 

WHY GEBMANY HATES THE BED CROSS. 

Officer Prisoner Says It Has Helped Break German Spirit. 
By Alice Leone Fleenor, San Francisco. 

A few days ago I visited a German Hospital Prison Camp in 
England. In one ward I found a Prussian officer who had 
been captured two days before on the Flanders front. 

While the nurse was explaining his injury to me I noticed that 
the German was glaring at the Bed Cross on my shoulder strap. 

As I was about to turn away the patient muttered: 

" I hate dot Bed Cross ; I hate it." 

"Why should you hate the organization which saved your 
life ? " I asked, for I was frankly puzzled by the Prussian 
officer's evident animosity. 

"Yy, vy, for dis reason," responded the oberleutnant, raising 
himself higher while his eyes flashed. " I hate dot Bed Cross 
because it has broken the brave spirit of the German peoples." 

For fifteen minutes the officer continued to describe the 
offenses of the American Bed Cross in Germany. 

As I listened to him I began to realize that the American Bed 
Cross had been one of the most potent factors in the breaking 
down of the morale of the military and civilian populations of 
Germany. This work was accomplished by our Bed Cross un- 
consciously. Yet it has been done and done well. This is what 
the German officer revealed to me: 

Due to a carefully censored press and a lack of any outside 
communication, the German people have been kept in complete 
ignorance regarding the other countries of the world. Mean- 



A SOLDIER'S JOKE — AND WHAT CAME OF IT! 353 

time a steady system of propaganda calculated to deceive has 
been operating. 

The civilians were told that their sufferings were nothing as 
compared to those of the Allies, that America was not entering 
to any appreciable extent into the war, that the American Red 
Cross had practiced atrocities against the German prisoners. 

The people believed this propaganda. It had the desired effect 
for a time of making them endure any sacrifice. They might 
still believe much of it were it not for the fact that the Ameri- 
can Red Cross has been quietly operating in the very midst 
of the German civilians as a great existing proof of the falsity 
of the German propaganda. It has been the only visible symbol 
of the " Outside-of-Germany World," but it has been a power- 
ful one. 

On the very day that a leading Hamburg paper published an 
article stating that America would never enter actively into the 
war a large group of American prisoners was quartered in a 
small town near by. 

Immediately there was erected an American Red Cross Depot. 
Warm clothing, medicine, food, and supplies of all kinds ar- 
rived in large quantities. The German townpeople came and 
inspected the depot and its great store of supplies. In the face 
of this concrete evidence it was not strange that they began to 
wonder whether America did lack supplies or did intend only to 
act as a figurehead in the war. 

On another occasion the Berlin Tageblatt published an en- 
tire column in justification of the bombing of Red Cross hospi- 
tals, the sinking of Red Cross ships, and firing upon Red Cross 
stretcher-bearers. The Tageblatt told of the inhumanity of 
the Allied and American Red Cross in mistreating German 
prisoners, in starving them and denying them medical attention. 

Next day a group of more than 500 Germans who had been 
cared for in the American and Allied Red Cross hospitals were 
returned to their homes in Germany. They told of clean hos- 
pitals, expert surgeons, good food, and kind treatment. The 
German people began to ask questions. 

Once they questioned the statement of their government and 
their Press, the supreme confidence of the German civilian 
population was shaken, for people began to think for themselves. 

The German oberleutnant hated the Red Cross for dem- 
onstrating the truth concerning America to his people. We are 
proud of it for the same reason. 

Copies of the "Weekly containing this article marked 
were distributed in London to more than 300 American 



354 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

soldiers who had just come from prison camps in Ger- 
many. Many of them vonched for the trnth of what the 
Prussian officer had said, that the stores of American 
Eed Cross supplies in the prison towns had convinced the 
German people that the Allies were far from needing food- 
stuffs as their desperate leaders had told them. 

As for the second one: 

A convalescent American soldier came into Stratford 
Lodge, the Eed Cross Eest Eoom, at Portsmouth, one 
November afternoon. He had come from the U. S. Base 
Hospital there in search of an hour's diversion. From 
one of the tables he picked up a copy of the Weekly 
Bulletin and sat down by the fire to read it. When he had 
gone through all its eight pages he went to the writing 
table and was intently busy there for more than half an 
hour. At last he got up, and approaching one of the 
Eed Cross workers said, with a smile of embarrassment, 
as he held out several closely written pages: 

" Here's something you might like to have for your 
Bulletin, It's about some Eed Cross work our boys did 
in Prance." 

And with that he turned and hurried out, without giv- 
ing his name or saying a further word about himself. 
But what he wrote was published in the Bulletin for No- 
vember 27, with the title " In a Prench Village, — Why 
the people of Milancourt love the American soldiers." 
It seems a pity that its author should not be known. 

There is a little village in Prance that will always remember 
and love the American soldiers. I dont think I am breaking 
the Censor's rules if I tell yon its name. It is Milancourt, a 
little hamlet on the Somme, about three miles from Abbeville. 

It was last June when a battalion from a certain New York 
regiment was billeted there. They were the first American sol- 
diers that the people of Milancourt had ever seen. The men 
themselves had arrived from " God's Country " only a few days 
before, and after a long sea trip it was deemed that eight hours' 
drill a day with a heavy pack, under the broiling sun of 
northern France, would bring them into splendid condition 
again in a few weeks. 



A SOLDIER'S JOKE — AND WHAT CAME OF IT! 355 

The work was hard, but those boys knew what they were train- 
ing for. They knew that the end of each day brought them 
nearer to the line where the fighting was, and so they took to 
the long hikes and the gruelling bayonet drills without a 
murmur. 

One would have thought that every man, once his long day's 
work was over, would straightway seek his bunk. But not these 
boys. That is, not right away. You \see, the boys were all 
billeted in little farm-houses. Each farm-house had its little 
plot of land, and as the men had all gone to the war the women 
had to do all the work, assisted by the little boys and girls. 
It was hard work for these people, and the sight of the women 
and children toiling early and late in the fields brought the 
war home to the young American soldiers as nothing else had 
done. 

And so each day, after their long drill was over, the Ameri- 
cans devoted themselves to what they used to call their Red 
Cross work. They went out into the fields with hoes and shovels 
and rakes, or plowed and sowed or took in the crops, while the 
good French mothers stood around in smiling surprise and 
astonishment and pleasure and supervised the job. 

Pay? Talk pay to any of those boys and it meant fight! 
They were more than compensated in just knowing that they 
were helping a people who were throwing their every energy 
into a fight for everything in the world worth fighting for. 

And the children? Is there anybody in the world who gets 
along so well with children as the American soldier? Eight- 
year-old Morel was one of the favorites among the children of 
Milancourt, When Morel would ask, as an aeroplane flew 
overhead, " Eees eet le Boche ? " the soldier to whom the ques- 
tion was put would dig his rake in the ground all the harder 
and reply, " Not on your life, sonny ; they'll never get this far ! " 

And so they worked on day after day at their "Red Cross 
work," far into the evening, until it was too dark to see. And 
the French people, the old men and the women and the little 
children were never tired of talking of the " bon " Americans. 

When the day came for the battalion to leave for its next post, 
many miles up toward the front, the village folk followed the 
marchers to the outskirts of the village and gave them farewell 
presents of food and wine, and bade them a God-speed and a safe 
return. 

Yes, these boys will be remembered for many a long year in 
Milancourt. Some of them will never return, but those who 
are left will go back to the little French village on a visit one 
day, and it will be a great reunion. 



356 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

The " star " number of the Weekly was perhaps that 
for October 23 which gave, among other things, extended 
narrations of the work on the barren shores of Islay, the 
Scotch island, where the Eed Cross succored the sur- 
vivors and buried the dead of the wrecked troopship 
Otranto. Kequests for copies of this issue were numerous 
and came even from far distant India. 



CHAPTEK XXI 

THE PICTUEe's THE THING ! 

RECOGNITION of man's immemorial love of pic- 
tures, no less than the intent to compile a per- 
manent, graphic record of activity and achievement, made 
photography an important branch of the Commission's 
work in Great Britain. And it was only natural that the 
taking of moving pictures became a vital part of this 
work. Snapshots or time exposures of persons or events, 
however distinguished, in short, the entire range of camera 
pictures which the " movie " operater refers to rather 
contemptuously as " stills," reach a comparatively small 
audience. On the other hand, the cinema film, capable of 
infinite reproduction, is sent broadcast over a country and 
flashed on a thousand screens, before a million people in 
a single night. 

In its photographic accomplishments, the Department 
of Information of the British Commission was eminently 
successful. The " movie " results it obtained under 
autumn and winter weather conditions in England — 
which would blast the life of a Los Angeles " camera man " 
— were often miraculous. And the millions of Americans 
who viewed these results in their favorite cinema houses 
at home never knew of the dread with which the Red Cross 
operator carried his film box into the dark room nor how 
anxiously he watched his pictures come to life in the 
ruthless developer. 

Upon one memorable occasion the anxiety was shifted 
in all its might to the shoulders of a Red Cross em- 
ployee in a dark room in distant America. There were 

two reasons for this; one, that the film portrayed Presi- 

357 



358 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

dent Wilson's arrival in London and his reception by 
King George ; the other that it enabled the American Red 
Cross to exhibit the pictures to the people of America 
several days before any rival films of this historic scene 
reached the United States. 

The American Red Cross had been informed of the 
time of Mr. Wilson's arrival and, in order to take the 
pictures, had armed itself well in advance with the several 
and particular documents required by the British Foreign 
Office and other governmental or military bureaus. This 
was accomplished through the American Embassy and 
consumed three days as the permits underwent no end 
of signing, sealing, and countersigning. Among them, 
and all-powerful in such a circumstance, was a simple 
white card bearing solely the cryptic legend: 

BOARD OF THE GEEEN CLOTH 

but it was signed by Viscount Farquhar, Lord Stewart of 
the King's Household, and it did what the other imposing 
documents could not do — it opened the gates of Buck- 
ingham Palace to the Red Cross operator. 

The coming of the President filled London's streets 
with one of the greatest crowds the city had ever known. 
At Charing Cross, the railway station by which he ar- 
rived from Dover and where he was met by King George 
and Queen Mary and their suite, and along the path of 
the subsequent procession to Buckingham Palace, the 
people were massed with the determined compactness of a 
swarm of bees. To prevail against this crowd, it had been 
arranged that the Red Cross "movie man" should 
" shoot " from the top of a Red Cross motor, but at the 
last minute the car was commandeered by some Ameri- 
can general and a very unofficial looking taxicab had to be 
employed. The operator, however, fortified with his 
documents, managed to get it through the crush to an ad- 
mirable vantage point. 



THE PICTURE'S THE THING! 359 

Mr. Wilson arrived at Charing Cross at 1.30 o'clock 
on the afternoon of December 26, 1918 — " Boxing Day " 
— and although there were occasional flashes of sunlight, 
London's inevitable mist hung in a gray veil over every- 
thing. Nevertheless the operator cranked away prayer- 
fully until the distinguished party had rolled away in the 
State carriages. Then, having another taxicab in wait- 
ing in a side street, because the first one was immovable 
in such a crowd, he made his way off by a side exit and 
went at top speed for a selected spot on the line of march. 
There he got many more feet of film of the crowd, and 
decorations and then the Royal party as it passed. 

In the meantime the second operator, with his little 
" Board of the Green Cloth " card, had obtained a posi- 
tion inside the yard of Buckingham Palace. And when 
the party arrived he was able to get a valuable photo- 
graphic record of the scene. This included, in addition 
to the arrival, the inspection of the Guard of Honor by 
the President and King George, Mr. and Mrs. Wilson 
with the royal family on the balcony of the Palace, with 
an incidental " shot " at the crowd and at a group of city 
motor busses, the first ever permitted to enter the Palace 
courtyard, which were filled with wounded American and 
British soldiers. It was by the King's own wish that 
they entered and it is a pity that the film could not record 
the noisy " Three cheers for the King ! " which the Ameri- 
cans gave as he alighted from the carriage, although it did 
get the open mouths and the waving of the flags. 

The result of the day's labors was two boxes of precious 
film, 390 feet devoted to the reception at Charing Cross 
and 400 feet to the arrival at Buckingham Palace. As 
dispatch in getting this record off to America was the fore- 
most consideration, no attempt was made to develop it. 
The two boxes of films were taken to a dark room in Picca- 
dilly, there hermetically sealed in tin boxes and brought 
to 40 Grosvenor Gardens. At ten minutes after 5 o'clock 
next morning a Red Cross orderly took them by fast train 



360 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

to Southampton where the troopship Louisville, the old St. 
Louis of the American Line, was in readiness to cast off 
for a homeward voyage. It was imperative that the films 
be placed aboard her as the next ship to sail, the Lapland, 
would not leave for five days. So the orderly hunted 
out a Red Cross man among the passengers, Lieutenant 
John B. Martin, and gave him the boxes with a letter of 
instruction as to what to do with them. He immediately 
popped them into a safe as the ship's Chief Surgeon and 
there they remained until the Louisville came into her 
berth at Sew York. But before she even left Southamp- 
ton, a cablegram announced the forwarding of the films 
had gone to America and a Bed Cross representative was 
duly on the pier to receive them. Which is the end of the 
little story of how the Bed Cross " scooped " the profes- 
sional movie people when Bresident Wilson came to 
London. 

Upon several other occasions during his visit, the Bresi- 
dent was caught by the cinema men of the American Bed 
Cross, notably when he went to the Guildhall to receive 
the freedom of the City of London, but the results were 
not always highly successful. During the autumn and 
winter the climate of England is an ever-present obstacle 
to the moving picture operator as no lenses have ever been 
devised capable of " shooting " through its immemorial 
mist. For instance, when London was so boisterously cele- 
brating the signing of the Armistice, it was a drizzling 
day and many feet of disappointing film resulted. How- 
ever, a watery sun struggled out for a surprising half- 
hour now and then for the next three or four days and 
as the jollification was still going on, the Bed Cross 
managed to put together a reel which conveyed a good idea 
of how London and the American soldiers in London 
hospitals greeted the cessation of hostilities. 

The moving picture operators likewise made journeys 
to all the places in England at which Bed Cross activities 
were in progress and eventually turned out more than 



THE PICTURE'S THE THING! 361 

fifteen thousand feet of film which were successfully de- 
veloped and hurried across the Atlantic for projection 
throughout the States. 

A short time before Christmas the Red Cross gave an 
exhibition of its films in London and as these antedated 
the President's arrival, the pictures which attracted most 
attention were those depicting the visit of the King and 
Queen to the American wounded at Dartford hospital, the 
scenes of Armistice Day there, including the sham 
battle, staged in celebration by the men of the Twenty- 
seventh Division to show " How we broke the Hindenburg 
Line," and the record of the tour by Mr. Henry P. Davi- 
son, Chairman of the War Council, to the hospitals and 
other centers in England at which Red Cross activities were 
in progress. Mr. Davison was seen having a " bite " at the 
Red Cross canteen at Winchester Rest Camp, reviewing the 
negro troops leaving the camp for the front, chatting with 
the wounded at Romsey hospital, congratulating an Amer- 
ican " V.C." at Portsmouth Hospital and inspecting the 
famous cows at Sarisbury Court which were a gift to the 
Red Cross from the farmers of the Channel Islands. An- 
other part of the exhibition portrayed Major General John 
Biddle, Commanding the American Forces in Great 
Britain, standing in a long line of soldiers, waiting his 
turn to get a Red Cross canteen doughnut and a cup of 
coffee. Still other parts were devoted to the American 
wounded at Sarisbury, the arrival of the last convoy of 
wounded from France with the " Victory Smile " on their 
faces in spite of their hurts, and the first homeward bound 
Yankee troops, a picture taken in front of the American 
Red Cross " Dollar Exchange " Station at Liverpool where 
in one day forty thousand American dollars were given in 
exchange for the soldiers' English and French money. 
The scenes of embarkation of American troops, at South- 
ampton, where they received farewell gifts from the Red 
Cross were also flashed upon the screen. The construc- 
tion of the hospital at Sarisbury Court, planned as the 



362 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

largest American hospital in Great Britain was shown, 
supplemented by the Red Cross Convalescent Home for 
American nurses at Cole-brook Lodge, Putney, and the 
making of surgical dressings and hospital requisites in the 
Red Cross workrooms at !No. 32 Grosvenor Gardens, 
London. 

The films indicate comprehensively what the Red Cross 
" movie " men accomplished, although they give no hint 
of the difficulties they encountered. Among the great 
difficulties, and quite aside from English weather, was the 
difficulty of obtaining necessary supplies. The task of 
purchasing a moving picture outfit in the London market 
meant at least a fortnight's unremitting search as the War 
Office, the Admiralty or the Royal Air Force com- 
mandeered every camera it could find. Photographic 
lenses were more precious than rubies and ordinary 
cameras were almost as rare as roc's eggs, wherefore no end 
of ingenuity was often called into play to take a picture 
when adequate apparatus was unavailable. As an ex- 
ample, a Red Cross camera man sought to take a picture 
from the summit of a bleak Scotch cliff which would show 
where the troopship Otranto was wrecked, with the loss 
of hundreds of American soldiers. The picture was of im- 
portance as a part of the pictorial record of the war, but to 
take it required a high-quality tele-photo lens. But there 
was not one in all England. The camera man refused to 
be daunted and, on the spot, rigged together the lenses from 
three different cameras in his kit and, by holding them in 
position with his hand, took the picture. He made three 
trials and at last got the only view of the scene which has 
been taken. A copy from that negative is now in the 
archives of the War Department at Washington. 

The ordinary camera work of the Red Cross in Great 
Britain, which was begun in September, 1918, grew as 
the activities of the Commission broadened. At the outset 
the number of pictures taken was forty-two a week, but 
within a short time this had to be increased to 100, so 



THE PICTURE'S THE THING! 363 

that all branches of endeavor might be covered. The 
" still " man was not without his troubles, as the taking 
of pictures was surrounded with war restrictions of every 
kind and complexity. Not infrequently it was necessary 
that permits be obtained from half a dozen different bureau 
chiefs to take a single series of photographs. However, 
when this department was discontinued on January 1, 
1919, more than 1,500 photographic plates had been taken 
and prints from them forwarded to the United States. As 
a contribution to the permanent historical records of Na- 
tional Red Cross Headquarters, at Washington, more than 
a thousand of these photographs were selected and bound in 
twelve large volumes, with a complete and carefully 
written title for each picture — fully 150,000 words in 
all — and dispatched to America from the Commission for 
Great Britain. 



CHAPTEK XXII 

VALEDICTORY 

IT is anomalous that war should create and that peace 
should sweep away, but within a short time after the 
signing of the Armistice the American Eed Cross in Great 
Britain began, little by little, to curtail its activities, to 
close this bureau, then that, to dismantle the large and ef- 
fective structure it had reared. The men in hospital were 
being sent back to America as quickly as possible by the 
army, there were no more transports to land their adventur- 
ing legions at the water gates — the purposes of war were 
at an end. And as the wounded left by hundreds on the 
homing ships, so, within a few weeks, the hospitals be- 
gan, one by one, to close their doors. The army re- 
linquished all its hospitals save those at Sarisbury and 
Liverpool, which were kept open all winter, the American 
wounded being transferred thither from all the other in- 
stitutions, both American and English. With the evacua- 
tion of so many of them, the need for canteen and recrea- 
tion service no longer existed, therefore the only places at 
which the Red Cross canteens were maintained were the 
docks — a sort of valedictory to the passing columns. 

In the work of returning its men to America the army 
asked the Red Cross to assist in the care of them during 
their ocean voyage, and it was arranged that a large 
quantity of Red Cross supplies should be carried on each 
west-bound hospital ship in charge of a regularly assigned 
Red Cross officer. The soldiers were sent home in detach- 
ments of one hundred to fifteen hundred, sometimes on 
vessels detailed exclusively for hospital uses, but at other 
times they went on the ordinary transports in which the 
second cabin accommodations were usually allotted to them 

364 



VALEDICTORY 365 

alone and where, thus collected, they could be nnder more 
constant care of the medical men and nnrses. 

The Red Cross officer detailed to snch work acted in 
cooperation with the medical staff. He had an extensive 
stock of supplies at hand which were distributed as occa- 
sion demanded to the men in the various " wards." The 
supplies included comforts of all kinds and food delicacies, 
as well as medical and surgical requisites. In many cases 
the transports themselves were provided with sheets, pillow 
cases and such articles of equipment from the Red Cross 
warehouses. 

During the month of December, eight huge transports, 
incuding the Leviathan, sailed for home with American sol- 
diers aboard and each of these ships carried from $1,500 
to $10,000 worth of Red Cross supplies. The character 
of them is well indicated by the following list of articles 
requisitioned for the 250 sick and wounded who sailed 
two days before Christmas on the Mauretania: 

Christmas trees, 20,000 cigarettes, 5,000 sheets of writ- 
ing paper, 2,000 bars of chocolate, 2,000 envelopes, 1,000 
handkerchiefs, 1,000 towels, 350 Christmas boxes, 300 
cakes of toilet soap, 100 tins of pipe tobacco, 50 pipes, 
300 packages of chewing gum, 2 crates of oranges, 600 
pounds of lemon drops. 

A Red Cross " conducting officer's " experience, as re- 
lated in a report he forwarded to London after reaching 
New York will give a good idea of the duties and service 
involved during a voyage. He wrote : 

" The giving out of supplies is by no means all the serv- 
ice which a Red Cross conducting officer can render, nor 
is it even the most important part of his duties. He finds 
that he is a ' factotum ' on board and it is his business to 
do those little things which are nobody else's business. He 
must act as comrade and companion ; he must write letters 
and do Home Communication work of all kinds ; he must 
answer all kinds of questions. 

" I spent a large part of the first day finding out ex- 



366 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

actly what privileges the men in the hospital section of 
the boat were entitled to under the agreement with the 
steamship company. We had 820 men in our hospital con- 
tingent, all of them freshly evacuated from the hospitals in 
England. These men were entitled to the best of the 
second class quarters, and it was part of the duty of the 
Ked Cross officer to see that they got it. The men were 
fed at the tables in the second class dining saloon, except 
for a few cot cases. The food was good and after a little 
Red Cross work it was arranged that they should have 
fruit with both breakfast and dinner. A sergeant was de- 
tailed to see that the sick men received their portions before 
any of the other second class passengers were served, and 
if there was any shortage it was never the sick men who 
suffered. 

" About thirty of the men developed temperatures dur- 
ing the first few days out and it was evident that unless 
these cases were promptly isolated there would be a good 
many contacts on the way over. Again the Red Cross man 
stepped in and helped to make the men see that it was im- 
portant that a man who appeared to be developing in- 
fluenza should go to bed promptly and not endanger his 
fellow-passengers. All the temperature cases were isolated 
on the upper stern deck where nine cases of mumps and 
ten of pneumonia were cared for during the voyage. 

" The pneumonia cases did not seem to be doing very 
well. The men seemed to need special nourishment and 
the Red Cross was able to furnish them with a regular diet 
of egg-nog which was of great assistance. The men with 
fever needed a bath every day and in many cases the order- 
lies were too busy to see that this was given properly. So 
the Red Cross Aide took these cases in hand, put the men 
into Red Cross pajamas, saw that they were bathed 
properly and kept them supplied with cool drinks. 

" The Red Cross Aide, a woman of wide experience, was 
very useful throughout the trip. In one case, that of a 
delicate boy who developed pneumonia, she did more to 



VALEDICTORY 367 

pull the patient through the crisis of his sickness than all 
the doctors aboard. The boy gave himself up for lost, but 
she brought back his courage and his fighting spirit, made 
him take nourishment and stayed with him until he was 
over the worst. 

" The question of supples for the ship was very carefully 
worked out before we left Liverpool. Cigarettes, under- 
clothing, sweaters, comfort kits and various other things 
were supplied in such quantities as the Red Cros ware- 
house could spare and whenever there were possible de- 
ficiencies, arrangements were made to obtain supplement- 
ary articles through the ship's canteen. 

" For the distribution of such supplies as cigarettes and 
chocolate, the assistance of the non-commissioned officers 
was arranged and these officers also ascertained the exact 
needs of their men regarding supplies of other kind, such 
as clothing, so that no man should be in need of anything. 
He could make application direct to his immediate non- 
commissioned officer and the latter could draw at once 
upon the Bed Cross supplies for the required articles. 

" The Red Cross found a great deal of work to be done 
in changing English money for American dollars, in see- 
ing that the men got good ventilation and in getting the 
convalescent cases up on deck for fresh air. There were 
also a few cases where small loans seemed advisable, these 
being mostly to men who had failed to receive their month's 
pay before leaving." 

Another Red Cross officer, detailed to the Louisville for 
her Christmas voyage, reported : 

" We celebrated Christmas on board ship at Southamp- 
ton just before we sailed. We had excellent assistance 
from a large party of Red Cross naval nurses aboard. 
There was a Christmas stocking for each of the wounded 
men, 120 in all, and a Christmas dinner which left nothing 
to be desired. On the way across we found a use for all 
of the 125 comfort kits allotted to us by the Red Cross 
office in Southampton and also for the 100 Red Cross 



368 THE PASSING LEGIONS 

blankets which were used for the sick cases. A contribu- 
tion of woolen goods from a collection made by the Holy 
Trinity Church, Philadelphia, was used on this occasion. 
The oranges and lemon drops proved the greatest blessing 
that we had. These were given to the sick and wounded 
in the ship's hospital and to the sea-sick men, and many a 
poor fellow declared with a pardonable exaggeration that 
they saved his life. 

" On New Year's Eve we had a repetition of Christmas 
Day, with gift packages for all the men in hospital and 
an excellent holiday dinner. 

" Practically all the supplies which we carried were put 
to good use, including the towels, handkerchiefs, soap, 
chocolate and cigarettes. These were distributed in most 
cases to each company through the officers. 

" The Red Cross was praised on every hand, both by 
the soldiers and officers, for its great work during the war 
and on the transports homeward bound." 

In many cases the Red Cross conducting officer intro- 
duced himself to the men on board his ship by means of a 
circular letter, through which he put himself immediately 
at the service of any men who might be in need of the 
services of either the hospital and supplies department or 
of the home Communication Bureau. Circular letters of 
this kind were quite informal in tone and strove to show the 
men not only how the Red Cross could be of help to them, 
but how they could serve one another on the homeward 
journey. Thus, a letter issued by the conducting officer 
of the Baltic on one of her hospital journeys, said: 

" To the Boys of the Baltic: 

" Now that you have put the wicked back into their 
places and right and justice have been re-throned, you are 
getting home to receive the plaudits and gratitude of the 
folks who have been following you in their thoughts since 
you left them. 

" We shall all be together a number of days on the ship 



VALEDICTORY 369 

and I want to ask you to resolve yourselves into one big 
family and let us all have a good time together. 

" If each man will help, we can easily while away the 
time pleasantly and profitably until the shores of the great 
land from which we came are in sight and the voyage will 
be a pleasant memory to all of us. 

" The American Red Cross hopes and believes it has 
aided and helped you since the great call came. It is 
anxious to continue to be of service on this voyage and until 
you are returned to the loved homes from which you came. 

" To this end, I want to ask you to call on me for any 
help I can give you ou the voyage. At the same time I 
call on each personally to help all he can to make this a 
jolly good trip for all on board and one we will always 
look back on with delightful remembrance." 



THE END 



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